US Ruling Deals Blow to Local Anti-Fluoride Lobby – Making Sense of Fluoride

The safety of water fluoridation has been given a huge boost by the US Environmental Protection Agency which has just struck down a major challenge by lobbyists.

Making Sense of Fluoride President Daniel Ryan says it’s a ruling with ramifications here, as a parliamentary committee will soon begin hearings on a move that should extend fluoridation and its proven benefits to more New Zealand communities.

A petition to the EPA from a coalition of activist groups – including the Fluoride Action Network, which has affiliations with Fluoride Free NZ – basically sought to have fluoridation outlawed by reclassifying it as a toxin.

The EPA formally rejected the petition, saying it ‘has not set forth a scientifically defensible basis to conclude that any persons have suffered neurotoxic harm as a result of exposure to fluoride in the U.S. through the purposeful addition of fluoridation chemicals to drinking water or otherwise from fluoride exposure in the U.S.’.

In a 40 page pre-publication response, the EPA went on to systematically explain the flaws or irrelevance of the studies cited by petitioners, and the way the petitioners misrepresented the findings of other studies.

Responding to the petition’s further claims, the EPA reasserted the benefits of fluoridation including a detailed explanation of how it works and leads to ‘having fewer cavities, less severe cavities, less need for fillings and removing teeth, and less pain and suffering due to tooth decay,’.

Mr Ryan says the EPA’s ruling is a huge victory in these days of ‘alternative facts’.

’Opponents have once again tried to use bad science and misinformation but have been told in no uncertain terms that they and their citations are wrong’, he says. ‘These are the same scare tactics lobbyists have used incessantly in New Zealand and that they will be trying to use again when the Health Select Committee hears submissions later this year about transferring decision-making on fluoridation from local bodies to district health boards.’

Mr Ryan says the EPA’s ruling is a further endorsement of the improvements in dental health that New Zealanders will enjoy when the amendment becomes law.