Texas Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton is investigating two main toothpaste makers over their use of fluoride, suggesting that they’re “illegally advertising” the tooth cleaners to oldsters and children “in methods which are deceptive, misleading, and harmful.”
The toothpaste makers within the crosshairs are Colgate-Palmolive Firm, maker of Colgate toothpastes, and Proctor & Gamble Manufacturing Co., which makes Crest toothpastes. In an announcement Thursday, Paxton mentioned he has despatched Civil Investigative Calls for (CIDs) to the businesses.
The transfer is an escalation in an ongoing battle over fluoride, which successfully prevents dental cavities and improves oral well being. Neighborhood water fluoridation has been hailed by well being and dental consultants as one of many high 10 nice public well being interventions for advancing oral well being throughout communities, no matter age, schooling, or earnings. However, regardless of the success, fluoride has all the time had detractors—from conspiracy theorists prior to now suggesting the naturally occurring mineral is a type of communist thoughts management, to newer instances, during which low-quality, controversial research have urged that top doses might decrease IQ in youngsters.
The talk was renewed earlier this yr when the Nationwide Toxicology Program on the Nationwide Institute of Environmental Well being Sciences lastly revealed a very contentious research after years of failed scientific critiques. The research claims to discover a hyperlink between excessive ranges of fluoride publicity and barely decrease IQs in youngsters dwelling in areas outdoors the US, largely in China and India. However the research’s methodology, statistical rigor, danger of bias, and lack of information transparency proceed to attract criticism.
