In the previous studies it was brought to the public’s notice that fluoride in water causes discolored teeth. It causes fluorosis and does not protect the teeth from cavities. But now Dr. Chester Douglass and other Harvard researchers reported that fluoridated tap water pose a great risk of boys developing for a rare bone cancer. Douglass is an epidemiology professor at Harvard’s School of Dental Medicine.
He is paid to work as an editor of the Colgate Oral Care Report, a newsletter supported by the toothpaste maker. The results of the study were published online in a Harvard-affiliated journal. This could intensify debate over fluoridation. Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) against Douglass. Now Harvard and the NIH are jointly investigating the work of Douglass.This is because last year he reported from his research findings that there was no link between fluoride and cancer, despite extensive research to the contrary by one of his doctoral students. The NIH gave Douglass at least $1 million for the research. Dr. Elise Bassin, who is the doctoral student published in a journal Cancer Causes and Control that boys who drink water with levels of fluoride considered safe by federal guidelines are five times more likely to develop osteosarcoma than boys who drink unfluoridated water.
Statistics show that every year about 250 boys are diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the most common type of bone cancer and the sixth most common cancer in children in US. But he also adds that more research is needed to confirm or refute this observation.
