EXETER, N.H., May 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — A University of North Carolina (UNC) dentist is recruiting infants from Lenoir County, NC, for an experiment exposing them to fluoride, which has been shown in dozens of studies to lower IQ, according to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).
The study, named waterBEST and led by dental researcher Dr. Gary Slade, would give bottled water with fluoride to infants starting at age 3–6 months and continuing to age 4 years. It is intended to test whether fluoridated water reduces cavities. The study’s Informed Consent document, that parents must sign, fails to mention the risk of lowered IQ.
National Institute for Health guidelines for human medical experimentation require that participants be fully informed of risks, and that risks do not outweigh potential benefits. FAN detailed how the waterBEST study violates these requirements in a formal Letter of Concern to the UNC Institutional Review Board (IRB) that is responsible for monitoring the ethics of human research.