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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Harvard Doctor Hides Cancer Risk of Fluoride
According to the Washington Post, a doctor at Harvard may have buried results showing that fluoride may increase the risk of a rare form of bone cancer—osteosarcoma--in adolescent boys. From WaPo:
[Chester] Douglass reported last year that the odds of having osteosarcoma after drinking fluoridated water was "not statistically different" from the risk after drinking non-fluoridated water. But in 2001, Douglass's doctoral student, Elise Bassin, published a thesis using his data that concluded: "Among males, exposure to fluoride at or above the target level was associated with an increased risk of developing osteosarcoma. The association was most apparent between ages 5-10, with a peak at six to eight years of age."
Bassin's thesis work is considered the most rigorous human study to date on a possible connection between fluoridation and osteosarcoma, a rare but lethal form of cancer that affects males nearly twice as often as females. Patients with the cancer live an average of three years after diagnosis. In 1990, an animal study by the National Toxicology Program found "equivocal evidence" of a link between fluoridated water and cancer in male rats. And more than a decade ago, a New Jersey Department of Health survey found that young males in fluoridated communities had a higher rate of osteosarcoma than those in non-fluoridated communities.
Douglass also serves as editor in chief for the industry-funded Colgate Oral Care Report. At the prompting of the Environmental Working Group, Harvard officials and federal investigators are now probing to see if Douglass intentionally hid the findings.
Posted by Genevieve Smith
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