Secure Arkansas, a statewide group that opposes mandatory water fluoridation, alleges that a 2002 study used by Dr. Lynn Mouden, who was director of the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) Office of Oral Health, to support statewide mandatory water fluoridation was never actually conducted.
Jeannie Burlsworth, executive director of Secure Arkansas, said Mouden used the studies to push through a legislative mandate in 2011 requiring all water districts with more than 5,000 customers to fluoridate the water. Mouden wrote in the report that two studies were conducted in Morrilton and Perry County that “vividly showcase the efficacy of water fluoridation. In January of 2002, elementary school students in Perryville, Casa and Ann Watson schools received dental screenings at the request of the Perry County Hometown Health Coalition. In October of 2002, all kindergarten students from the City of Morrilton also received a dental screening at the request of the school. Comparing the data from fluoridated Morrilton to the data on the same age students in Perry County showed twice the decay rate for non-fluoridated Perry County children.”
Repeated attempts by the Independent to reach Mouden for comment were unsuccessful, and the Public Affairs Specialist for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Region 6, Bob Moos responded that although Mouden is currently chief dental officer for CMS, they “decline to comment at this time.”
Burlsworth said they contacted school officials in Morrilton and Perry counties about the studies and could find no school officials who remembered the dental surveys. On Dec. 18, affidavits from six of those school officials stating that no children’s teeth were examined and no studies were conducted were turned over to Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office for investigation.
“Mandatory water fluoridation was all based on a fraudulent study, and this study was used to push for mandatory public water fluoridation not just in Arkansas, but across the country,” Burlsworth said. “So, therefore, any action and any fluoride mandates in any state should be invalidated. This fraud should be investigated immediately by the U.S. Surgeon General. There should be a moratorium on the fluoride mandate in Arkansas until the investigation is concluded.”
State Health Officer Nate Smith, M.D., director of the ADH, denied the allegations.
“I don’t know how much Secure Arkansas stuff you have read, but a lot of it is made up out of thin air,” Smith said. “This is one of those things. It is ludicrous to contend that this is a study that never happened. There is actually no basis or reason for that. But, even apart from that, the premise they are working from is erroneous. No decisions were made based on an unpublished Arkansas study.”
Smith said research across the world has verified that water fluoridation reduces cavities in children. He said Secure Arkansas misrepresents scientific literature, doesn’t understand scientific methodology, and makes inflammatory comments that could be considered libelous and are harmful to the reputation of the ADH.
“They say so many things that have no basis in reality that I don’t feel I can trust anything they say,” Smith said. “They have said things I know are absolutely false. There is no conspiracy here. There is no smoking gun. There is just a lot of pulling stuff out of the air.”
Burlsworth contends that if the study had been done, school officials would have remembered children being screened and permission slips being sent out to parents. According to the affidavits from school officials, that wasn’t done.
Burlsworth also said as a reward for getting the fluoridate mandate passed in Arkansas in 2011, Mouden was promoted to being the chief dental officer the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Now that we have proof that this study was fraudulent, we question whether this individual is the right person to be in such as important, powerful national position,” Burlsworth said.
Secure Arkansas opposes mandatory fluoridation because of studies that have shown that fluoride is a neurotoxin that can cause reduced IQ in children, as well Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. There are also some scientific reports linking fluoridation to thyroid problems in adults.
“Now that we see that the basis for fluoridation was false, how can we continue to accept these other risks of fluoridation?” Burlsworth asks.
Eureka Springs residents have opposed fluoridation for more than 30 years, and voters have turned down fluoridation twice. But because of the state mandate, Carroll Boone Water District started fluoridating this past summer.
Local opponents said they aren’t just concerned about the fluoride, but all the other toxic contaminants in fluoridation chemicals. An article in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health said the contaminant levels of lead, arsenic, barium and aluminum in fluoride additives could vary widely from batch to batch. The study concluded, “Such contaminant content creates a regulatory blind spot that jeopardizes any safe use of fluoride additives.”