neurotoxic chemicals

March 28, 2025

Utah becomes first state to ban water fluoridation

By Douglas Main

Utah has become the first US state to ban the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to public water supplies.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed the new law on Thursday, prohibiting fluoridation starting May 7. The move comes amid growing scrutiny of the practice, which started in the 1940s as a strategy to help people prevent cavities and reduce tooth decay.

Though more than 70% of the US population receives fluoridated public water supplies and many medical professionals support the practice, opposition has been growing due to studies suggesting fluoride may have neurotoxic effects on fetuses and young children.

Newly appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been calling for an end to fluoridation in public drinking water for years.

Some professional bodies remain ardent supporters of the practice, however. The American Dental Association issued a statement on Friday accusing Utah lawmakers and the governor of showing “wanton disregard for the oral health and well-being” of state residents.

February 13, 2025

It’s not just RFK Jr — Opposition to fluoride in drinking water grows

By Douglas Main

Opposition to the US practice of adding fluoride to drinking water supplies has been growing as more evidence accumulates linking fluoride exposure to potential harmful brain impacts in children. Now, the future of the practice could be in doubt, with Thursday’s confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Kennedy, an environmental health lawyer, has been calling for an end to fluoridation in public drinking water for years. And though it is the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has regulatory oversight of fluoride levels in water supplies, the HHS plays a role in policy by publishing recommendations for fluoridation that many states follow.

An HHS task force currently recommends fluoridation based on “strong evidence of effectiveness in reducing tooth decay.”

But that could change. In his new role, Kennedy is widely expected to push for guidance against fluoridation.

Since Kennedy posted on X on November 2, 2024, that Donald Trump would end fluoridation if elected, it opened a floodgate of attention to the issue, said Chris Neurath, science research director with the anti-fluoridation group Fluoride Action Network.

That, combined with a high profile recent court case that ordered the EPA to re-evaluate the safety of fluoridation, and accumulating evidence of harm, have all caused a “snowball effect” of attention, according to Neurath.

“This elevation of the issue into the mainstream really is unique in the last 80 years,” Neurath said. Though evidence of harm keeps growing, he said, “the facts haven’t really changed — but the awareness of them has.”

January 6, 2025

Landmark study affirms fluoride’s link to lowered IQ, adds to debate

By Douglas Main

Fluoride exposure is consistently linked with lowered IQ, according to a landmark analysis of more than 70 published studies on the subject.

The paper, published January 6 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.

The study, the largest meta-analysis of its kind, found that those exposed to high levels of fluoride have measurably lower IQs, equivalent to a difference of nearly 7 IQ points, compared to those in the low fluoride groups. This conclusion came from 59 studies that looked at levels higher than those used in water fluoridation.

The study found the link between fluoride and IQ loss persisted even at low levels of fluoride, as measured in human urine samples.

The meta-analysis is an offshoot of the National Toxicology Program’s investigation into fluoride’s likely impact on neurodevelopment and cognition, published in August 2024, and comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of, and debate over, the practice of fluoridation of public drinking water.

In a seven-year-long court case that wrapped up in September 2024, US District Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California, ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take regulatory action to eliminate the “unreasonable risk” that water fluoridation presents. The fluoridation of water at 0.7 ppm “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children,” Chen wrote in his decision.

Many researchers are sharply divided over the issue, however.