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Bone Fractures

         From Prevention Magazine, August 2006, we read that the National Research Council panel’s report finds that a lifetime of drinking water at the EPA’s 4 mg/L upper limit seems to increase the risk of bone fractures.

         In 1992 researchers from the University of Utah reported in the Journal of the American  Medical Association that elderly men were 41% more likely to fracture a hip if they lived in a community where the water contained 1 mg/L fluoride than if they lived in areas with lower levels; women’s risk increased by 27%.  All were in communities that saw little in and out migration.

         Joseph L. Lyon, MD, a University of Utah professor of family and preventive medicine and lead author of the study, says findings like his are why adding fluoride to drinking water makes no sense, especially because its benefits can be obtained with toothpaste and other fluoride  dental products. “You are imposing risk on all individuals who use a public water system,” says Lyon.