Without any known health benefits of fluoride to babies, and with known potential harms, expectant mothers would do well to decrease or limit the amount of fluoride they consume.

On Monday, JAMA Pediatrics published a new research article on the potential effects on infant development of fluoride in our drinking water. In the decades-long controversial debate about whether fluoride is good or bad for human health, this research concluded that fluoride consumed by woman during pregnancy can decrease the intelligence (IQ scores) of their babies.

But before parents get too worked up about the results of this one study, there is a lot to know about fluoride and its essential, but scandalous role in public health — particularly in the United States, Canada, and Europe, where it is intentionally placed in public drinking water.