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Hailed by the Centers for Disease Control as one of the top ten public health achievements of the 20th century, water fluoridation is something most of us assume is safe, and effective. But new science has upended these assumptions, revealing that fluoride is a developmental neurotoxin and an endocrine disruptor.
In case it wasn’t enough that bacon is carcinogenic, now your tap water is full of a neurotoxin that is going to stunt your children’s growth, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
That’s the core message of “Our Daily Dose,” which is an all-over-the-place, twenty-minute short film condemning the widespread use of fluoride in American tap water. While it makes some relevant points about fluoride overexposure, “Our Daily Dose” is little more than a pseudoscientific infomercial that oscillates from legitimate concerns about uterine exposure to fluoride to claims that dental fluorosis (ingesting too much fluoride as an adult) can lead to lost IQ points.
Director Jeremy Seifert hasn’t exactly enjoyed a great relationship with scientific research or fact. Seifert is an anti-GMO activist who also directed and produced a film called “GMO OMG.” In that particular film, Seifert toes the familiar party line that GMOs are somehow harmful to one’s health, despite contrary statements from the World Health Organization, Royal Society of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and many others. “GMO OMG” was singled out by the New Yorker for its numerous scientific inaccuracies. In “Our Daily Dose,” I couldn’t help but feel that Seifert had once again produced a vignette high on style but low on substance.
The film is essentially a twenty-minute barrage of unrelated signs and graphs held up by sad-looking children, occasionally spliced in with “expert” testimony about the dangers of fluoride (one of the experts is a pastor with no apparent background in dental health). Seifert’s hysteria about fluoride and dubious claims about its potency as a neurotoxin invoke disturbing parallels between himself and the anti-vaccination movement. “Our Daily Dose” was able to find a small number of scientists to go against the scientific consensus, backed up by research, that fluoride at an appropriate dose is safe. The American Dental Association, Center for Disease Control, and Department of Health and Human Services have all independently verified the safety of fluoride. I was able to access these facts with a brief Google search after viewing “Our Daily Dose” – Jeremy Seifert would do well to attempt the same.
Ultimately, the entire crux that the film rests on – the Environmental Protection Agency listing fluoride as a neurotoxin – is misleading. From the CDC website: “(The) EPA’s enforceable standard for fluoride in public water supplies (4.0 milligrams per liter) is set to protect against exposure to high levels of naturally occurring fluoride.” In other words, the EPA listed fluoride as a neurotoxin when it is ingested at naturally occurring, unsafe levels. However, don’t expect “Our Daily Dose” to tell you that.
There is plenty of great research on fluoride and its presence in our water supply. I was able to learn more about it by briefly skimming the websites of national health organizations in the United States and Europe than I was by watching “Our Daily Dose”. If you are interested in learning more about it, I highly recommend reading research by people who know what they’re talking about. After watching his film, I do not believe Jeremy Seifert is one of those people.
OUR DAILY DOSE – Purchase from Jeremy Seifert on Vimeo.
