The American Dental Association (ADA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have argued for decades that it is necessary to add fluoride to the drinking water to help protect children from cavities. Anti-fluoride activists across the state and country have countered that fluoride is only effective when applied topically on the teeth, and that mass medication through drinking water supplies where doses can’t be controlled causes harm to the brains of children and poses health risks to adults.
Eureka Springs and Hot Springs passed voter referendums more than once to ban adding fluoride to drinking water but were overruled by state legislation in 2011 that mandated the addition of fluoride in water systems with more than 5,000 customers.
Through those years, anti-fluoride activists became increasingly frustrated that the CDC and ADA were ignoring mounting evidence of the harm from water fluoridation including lower IQs in children. Recently there was the largest development in history favoring those opposed to fluoridation when U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ordered the U.S. EPA to regulate fluoride in drinking water considering studies showing the chemical could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said while it is not certain fluoride is causing lower IQs in children, he said mounting research points to an unreasonable risk.
Crystal Harvey of Hot Springs, one of the state’s top anti-fluoride activists, said it has been hard for average citizens without deep pockets to counter the big money poured into the state to get the fluoride mandate adopted by the legislature.
“We beat back mandates in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009,” Harvey said. “Then the Pew Charitable Trust came in with big money to lobby for Act 197 in 2011. We felt helpless. We have been severely gaslighted for years. Anyone who even questions it is treated like a crazy idiot. Vested stakeholders who profit from fluoride continue to push this. They are still in denial of inconvenient science that doesn’t agree with their narrative. The day after the 80-page ruling by Judge Chen was released, the ADA put out a press release that it remains staunchly in support of water fluoridation.”
The judge didn’t require EPA to stop fluoridation, but anti-fluoride activists think there is enough evidence now to convince Arkansas legislators to remove the mandate.
“The judge said a preponderance of evidence shows fluoride in drinking water presents an unreasonable risk for injury to health,” Harvey said. “I think they should turn it off now and not wait for the government to do its job. That could take years.
“In the meantime, more and more children are being brain damaged by this known toxic substance in the water. Your brain, once it is damaged, there is no going back. Just a two- or three-point decrease in IQ can cause learning difficulties that can lead to the child having trouble finding a good job in the future. The cost to the State of Arkansas has to be astronomical. And fluoridation hasn’t been proven to work to prevent tooth decay. They have fluoridated Little Rock since the ‘50s and they still have rampant tooth decay. Fluoride helps when applied topically, not when it is ingested.”
The mandate appears to counter the Safe Drinking Water Act which states the federal government can’t require anything in the water except additives to make it potable. Harvey believes local water districts do not have to wait for the EPA to drag their feet to turn this off as a precautionary measure.
“Vested stakeholders who profit from the fluoride industry continue to proclaim it to be ‘safe and effective,’ and ‘he science is settled’,” Harvey said. “But water fluoridation is neither safe nor effective.”
The judge stated in his findings that by a preponderance of the evidence, community water fluoridation at 0.7mg/L/PPM (the current recommended concentration) presents an “unreasonable risk” of injury to health.
“There is substantial and scientifically credible evidence establishing that fluoride poses a risk to human health,” Judge Chen ruled. “Scientific literature in the record provides a high level of certainty that a hazard is present. Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger a regulatory response by the EPA under the 2016 Amended Toxic Substance Control Act.”
Harvey said the dental organizations that promote fluoridation are trained in dentistry and are not medical experts capable of making decisions about how fluoride impacts the brain and other body organs.
“The State of Arkansas should always practice precautionary measures that prioritize the public’s health,” Harvey said. “An important focus should be on the health, safety, and well-being of our children, not just on how many cavities it has been claimed to prevent. Teeth can be fixed but you can’t fix brain damage. Water fluoridation is reducing the IQ of our children, among other harms as stated in known scientific literature.
“The National Institutes of Health, after almost 80 years of fluoridation, has in recent years funded 10 studies investigating the effects of fluoride on the developing brain. All 10 have found cognitive impairment and neurobehavioral side effects. This is 100 percent consistent with different study authors studying children from different cultures, social economic backgrounds and countries, all finding the same result.”
Harvey said in light of the current findings, the state of Arkansas and all water authorities should be invoking the precautionary principle and prioritizing the public’s health. “Removing fluoride from our drinking water would allow us the freedom to choose whether to ingest fluoride,” she said. “Freedom over ourselves and our family’s health decisions is paramount for a free society.”
Secure Arkansas, a statewide grassroot organization active in state politics, wants the fluoride mandate overturn and water fluoridation banned.
“There is no safe level of exposure to fluoride in drinking water,” Secure Arkansas Founder Jeannie Burlsworth said. “Fluoride is more toxic than lead. Fluoride leaches lead from water pipes. Fluoride is a toxic chemical combined with other chemicals that poses a deadly risk to everyone, not just children. It’s just a public health hazard. It needs to be banned.”
Not all states mandate fluoridation but it is very common across the country. Burlsworth said some of the states are already taking action to removing fluoride mandates. Some water systems not under mandates are stopping fluoridation. But Burlsworth she said she doesn’t want to underestimate the dental lobbyists because they have gone all in promoting fluoridated water and refuse to admit they are wrong.
“I’m anxious to see what CDC will report since that agency has named fluoridation of water one of the top public health achievements of the past century,” Burlsworth said. “This next legislative session, we’re going to have legislation introduced to fix what has been a long-standing problem. I’m excited.”