CANTON – In the only town in the north country to ban fluoride from its drinking water, a handful of scientists gathered and claimed the cavity-fighting substance negatively affects behavior and lowers intelligence.

On Saturday at the St. Lawrence University campus, the second day of the First Citizens Conference on Fluoride, Phyllis J. Mullenix, who has a doctorate in pharmacology, lectured on fluoride and its alleged effect on behavior by citing results from lab-rat studies.

In Ms. Mullenix’s experiments, she said, she put certain concentrations of fluoride in rats’ drinking water. She said that once fluoride is ingested and gets into the blood, it goes to the brain and alters behavior.

She said studies show that the central nervous system is sensitive to fluoride, that fluoride accumulates in the brain tissue and that the effects on behavior depend on the age of exposure.

Ms. Mullenix concluded fluoride is a neurotoxin and grouped fluoridated water/toothpaste with other neurotoxins, such as nerve gases and pesticides that can cause sweating, confusion, visual problems, tearing, slurred speech, flushing, wheezing, twitching, nausea, cardiac arrhythmia and loss of reflexes.

The rat study also saw potential for learning disabilities and intelligence quotient deficits in humans, she said.

Albert Burgstahler, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry, spoke on IQ comparison studies among Chinese villages with varying levels of fluoride in their drinking water. The subjects were children 8 to 13 years of age.

…The children in villages with higher fluoride levels in drinking water showed higher rates of retardation (IQ of less than 70) and borderline intelligence (IQ of 70 to 79), Mr. Burgstahler said.

The conference is to continue through Monday. On Monday, the group will go to the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation to listen to the Mohawk experience with fluoride pollution.

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