EPA asked to review fluoride recommendations after a judge says it can hurt babies’ health

A U.S. District Court judge in California said earlier this week that adding fluoride to drinking water presents an “unreasonable risk” to young children, and especially babies.

That ruling earlier this week in a judgment against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency directs the federal government to come out with new regulations on adding fluoride to drinking water

Judge Edward Chen on Tuesday said: “The ‘optimal’ water fluoridation level in the United States of 0.7 milligrams per liter is nearly double that safe level of 0.4 milligram per liter for pregnant women and their offspring. In all, there is substantial and scientifically credible evidence establishing that fluoride poses a risk to human health.”

The judge did say he could not say with certainty that adding fluoride to water was dangerous, according to NBC News .

In response to the judge’s ruling, the American Dental Association said it still supports adding fluoride to drinking water.

“The American Dental Association (ADA) remains staunchly in support of community water fluoridation at optimal levels to help prevent tooth decay,” the statement said. “The district court ruling against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides no scientific basis for the ADA to change its endorsement of community water fluoridation as safe and beneficial to oral health.”

“Based on the ruling, the EPA is required to take a regulatory action, but the ruling did not ban or in any way limit the addition of fluoride to public drinking water supplies,” the statement said.

But if local Utah lawmakers in two counties want to limit fluoride based on the finding until more testing can be done, they might be in a bind because of voter initiatives requiring the fluoride to be added.

Scott Paxman, general manager of the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, said the district supplies drinking water to every city in Davis County that is fluoridated.

In a statement put out by the district, there was a call to stop the practice.

“Out of an abundance of caution and to prioritize the public’s health above all else, the addition of fluoride to the drinking water supplied by the district in Davis County, Utah, will be paused. This pause will allow for the National Toxicology Program (NTP), the Department of Health and Human Services, EPA, and other appropriate federal agencies, to conduct a comprehensive review of the safety and efficacy of water fluoridation in light of the new information,” the statement said.

Helpless to help

The problem is Paxman says he is powerless to stop fluoridating the water and the issue keeps gettin bumped from one agency to another with no answers available.

Because it was approved by a voter initiative , he says he can’t stop the delivery of fluoride. He informed the Utah Division of Drinking Water and made them aware of the situation. That group, in turn, alerted the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

Drinking water division director Nathan Lunstad said the state is waiting on guidance from the EPA.

In the interim, Paxman thinks delivery of fluoride in drinking water systems should stop sooner, rather than later, instead of waiting for the federal government to act.

But, he said he’s been informed that any unilateral decision by the district to halt delivery could result in criminal charges.

An analysis provided by the district court in California concluded that a one point drop in IQ of a child is to be expected for each 0.28 milligrams per liter of fluoride in a pregnant mother’s urine.

This is highly concerning, the judge noted, because maternal urinary fluoride levels for pregnant mothers in the United States range from 0.8 at the median up to 1.89.

“There is little dispute in this suit as to whether fluoride poses a hazard to human health. Indeed, EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is hazardous at some level of exposure. And ample evidence establishes that a mother’s exposure to fluoride during pregnancy is associated with IQ decrements in her offspring,” the judge said.

“The United States National Toxicology Program (“NTP”) — the federal agency regarded as experts in toxicity — undertook a systematic review of all available literature near the time of publication considering whether fluoride poses cognitive harm, reviewing 72 human epidemiological studies considering this question,” the court said.

Is the right amount of fluoride safe?

The NTP concluded that fluoride is indeed associated with reduced IQ in children, at least at exposure levels at or above 1.5.

The EPA argues the hazard level and the precise relationship between dosage and response at lower exposure levels are not entirely clear. These arguments, the court said, are not persuasive.

The 0.7 dose is what Weber Basin delivers to Davis County cities, with the exception of Woods Cross that opted out of the initiative.

Salt Lake County is in the same predicament, having a voter initiative approved in 2020 that was implemented three years later. Some areas opted out in that county, such as Holladay and White City.

Salt Lake County Health Department spokesman Nicholas Rupp said fluoride is recognized as safe at the appropriate level and has been endorsed by U.S. Surgeon Generals, the American Dental Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The fluoridation of drinking water in Salt Lake County, he added, has been well received by the public.

But in 2019, an “overfeed” of fluoride entered the system’s drinking water,, prompting a review of its 11 injectors. The failure was blamed on a heavy snowstorm that caused a power outage, triggering a malfunction in one of the injectors.

The city was criticized for how it handled the response, notifying the public of the issue 10 days later that mentioned concerns over exposure to lead and copper.

The city was ultimately fined by the state, and a report said more than 200 people were sickened by the incident. The concentrate in its undiluted form is classified as a hazardous, poisonous material that, while it contains fluoride, also contains arsenic, lead, copper, manganese, iron and aluminum. It is a byproduct from phosphate mining operations.

Fluoride was detected at 40 times the federal limit after the accidental release in 2019 in Sandy.

Scientific evidence also shows that the maternal urinary fluoride levels were approximately two times higher for pregnant women living in fluoridated regions compared to nonfluoridated regions, the court noted.

The environmental group Food & Water Watch brought the suit years ago.

In the aftermath of the Sandy incident, Davis County commissioners had their own discussions, with Lorene Miner Kamula visiting some of the injector sites within the county’s purview.

She said Friday she expects there will be discussions now with the commission and with the health department in light of the ruling.