Fluoride in drinking water – what the public needs to know

By Tom Theimer

After decades of debate, there no longer is any doubt that the widespread US practice of adding fluoride to drinking water is posing risks to our health.

The evidence that makes this clear has accumulated over many years, with much of it laid out in court files after a group of non-profits and individuals sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to end water fluoridation, alleging that fluoride’s neurotoxicity posed an unreasonable risk to human health.

The litigation led last year to a federal court ruling that fluoridated water is not safe. US District Judge Edward Chen stated in his September 24 decision that it was “proven” that “water fluoridation at the level of 0.7 mg/L” “presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment”.

Obama-appointed Judge Chen grilled both trial counsels without bias, and drilled down on the scientific nuances concerning fluoride’s neurotoxicity in coming to his conclusion. His 80-page ruling will be one for the history books of environmental law.

Judge Chen wrote in his ruling: “In all, there is substantial and scientifically credible evidence establishing that fluoride poses a risk to human health; it is associated with a reduction in the IQ of children and is hazardous at dosages that are far too close to fluoride levels in the drinking water of the United States.”

“One thing the EPA cannot do…in the face of this Court’s finding, is to ignore that risk,” the judge wrote.

The last seven years have been packed with volumes of scientific evidence, expert testimonies, depositions, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Report on Fluoride Neurotoxicity, and FOIA documents shedding light on institutional interference targeting top government toxicologists. 

A May 2024 study that looked at pregnant women who drank fluoridated water and followed their children for three years after birth found that prenatal fluoride exposure was linked to a range of health problems in children.  

And last month, a paper published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics and authored by scientists with the National Institutes of Health found a significant inverse relationship between measures of fluoride exposure and IQ in 64 of 74 studies.

This and other research has received little coverage in mainstream news outlets, leaving the broad public, journalists and professionals missing incredibly important information and context.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been calling for an end to fluoridation in public drinking water for years.

It’s past time for the public to understand the risks.
 
During the trial, both parties agreed that fluoride is a neurotoxin and that at least a 10X safety factor was required. This aspect alone makes fluoridated water not safe to drink.

As plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Connett has pointed out: “the court concluded that the levels that we add to drinking water are far too close to the levels that we know can cause neurotoxic effects.”

 Dr. Ashley Malin has participated in fluoride studies for over 10 years and says the EPA’s default factor of ten would set the safe levels at 0.15mg/l or lower.

In an address to the City Council of Tavares, Florida in December, Malin cited a 2020 study that found that for every 0.5mg/liter of fluoridated water in infant formula, the infant’s IQ could be lowered by 9 points. That study concluded that “exposure to increasing levels of fluoride in tap water was associated with diminished non-verbal intellectual abilities; the effect was more pronounced among formula-fed children”.

Tavares city leaders then voted to end its water fluoridation program.

World famous scientists testified at the trial, including Dr. Phillipe Grandjean, who helped the EPA set the safety standards for mercury, and Dr. Bruce Lanphear, who helped in setting the EPA safety standards for lead.

Grandjean testimony included this statement: “I wrote a book on this called ‘Only One Chance’ because you only have one chance to develop your brain…if something goes wrong, you don’t have a chance later on to remodel the brain.”

(Tom Theimer is a water safety activist affiliated with Dallas for Safer Water.)

(Opinion columns published in The New Lede represent the views of the individual(s) authoring the columns and not necessarily the perspectives of TNL editors.)

(Featured photo by Zyanya Citlalli for Unsplash+.)