Comment by Jun8

The article says "unpublished assessment" but the reason it's unpublished is because it was put on hold, as explained here: https://fluoridealert.org/articles/ntp-will-make-blocked-neu....

Here's a link to an earlier draft of the report: https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/sites/default/files/ntp/about_ntp/... (caution, large PDF file). Look at the summary in 82, with some comments by reviewers. The summary text says:

"Existing animal studies provide little insight into the question of whether fluoride exposure affects IQ. Human mechanistic studies were too heterogenous and limited in number to make any determination on biological plausibility. The body of evidence from studies on adults is also limited and provides low confidence that fluoride exposure is associated with adverse effects on adult cognition. There is, however, a large body of evidence on IQ effects in children. There is also some evidence that higher fluoride exposure is associated with other neurodevelopmental and cognitive effects; although, because of the heterogeneity of the outcomes, there is low confidence in the literature for these other effects. This review finds, with moderate confidence, that higher fluoride exposure [e.g., represented by populations whose total fluoride exposure approximates or exceeds the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality of 1.5 mg/L of fluoride (WHO 2017)] is consistently associated with lower IQ in children. More studies are needed to fully understand the potential for lower fluoride exposure to affect children’s IQ."

The commenters raise some objections about the way confidence of the results were expressed.

I think the consequences are so dire (IQ impairment in children) that any doubt has to be rigorously examined.