It has been added to municipal water for decades, but a federal judge hasn california has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate fluoride because high levels of it may pose an “unreasonable risk” to children’s intellectual development.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled Tuesday that scientific evidence of fluoride’s health risks when consumed at current prescribed levels requires stricter regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 2016. The act provides a legal path for citizens to petition the EPA to consider whether an industrial chemical presents a health risk.
In his 80-page ruling, Chen expressed “little dispute” that fluoride was dangerous and ordered the EPA to take steps to reduce the threat, but did not specify what those steps should be.
“In fact, the EPA’s own experts agree that exposure to fluoride poses some level of risk,” the judge said. “And substantial evidence establishes that exposure to fluoride could cause serious consequences to the mother. during pregnancy This has to do with the lack of IQ in his offspring.”
Presence of fluoride in water weakens intelligence
A drop of water is dripping from a leaking tap. (iStock)
“Between 1981 and 1984, there was controversy over the association of fluoride with adverse effects such as osteosclerosis, enamel fluorosis, and psychological and behavioral problems,” Chen said.
At the same time, he wrote, the Court’s conclusion “does not definitively conclude that fluoridated water is harmful to public health,” Chen said. “Instead, as required by TSCA as amended, the Court finds that there is an unreasonable risk of such harm, a risk sufficient to prompt EPA to engage with a regulatory response.”
“This order does not clearly set out what the response should be. TSCA, as amended, leaves that decision to EPA in the first place. However, what EPA cannot do in light of this court’s conclusion is to ignore that risk,” Chen said.
“If the Court again finds that the chemical in question presents an unreasonable risk, it orders the EPA to make regulations regarding the chemical,” the judge said. “EPA is given the authority to respond in the first instance; regulatory action could range from simply requiring warning labels to banning the chemical.”
EPA spokesman Jeff Landis told The Associated Press that the agency is reviewing the decision but had no further comment.
This is the first time a federal judge has made a decision about neurodevelopmental risks to children from recommended levels of fluoride in water in the U.S., said researcher Ashley Malin of the University of Florida. Study Effects of high fluoride levels on pregnant women.
He called it “the most historic decision to date in the American fluoridation debate.”
Currently more than 200 million Americans, or about 75 percent of the population, drink fluoridated water.
Fluoride is added to many brands of toothpaste (iStock)
Does fluoride in drinking water damage your brain?
In 1950, federal officials supported water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and they continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands were introduced to the market several years later. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the world to fluoridate its water supply.
Critics have long argued that the benefits of brushing teeth with fluoride are not comparable to the risks of fluoride ingestion, which can produce harmful neurotoxic effects.
Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. “For the five decades prior to that, the recommended upper limit was 1.2,” the judge wrote, “when evidence increasingly established a link to fluoride’s adverse effects, including severe enamel fluorosis, increased risk of bone fractures, and possible skeletal fluorosis.” Skeletal fluorosis is a potentially crippling disorder that causes weakened bones, stiffness, and pain.
The World Health Organization has set the safe limit for fluoride in drinking water at 1.5. In addition, the EPA has a longstanding requirement that water systems should not contain more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.
The case was brought by an advocacy organization called Food & Water Watch, which petitioned the EPA to investigate lower IQs in children allegedly caused by fluoride. The EPA denied the group’s 2016 petition, which asked the agency to ban or limit fluoridation. drinking water,
Food & Water Watch and several co-petitioners sued the EPA to take action, citing growing scientific evidence of toxicity from fluoride intake.
“Today’s decision represents an important acknowledgement of a large and growing body of science that points to a grave human threat health risk “The problems associated with fluoridated drinking water can be serious,” the group said in a statement.
Click here to get the Fox News app
Water utility foreman at a plant in Healdsburg, California, where fluoride is added to drinking water. (Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“This Court has seen the science and acted accordingly. Now the EPA must respond by enacting new regulations that adequately protect all Americans — especially our most vulnerable infants and children — from this known health threat.”
Tuesday’s decision cited a review of 72 human trials Epidemiological Studies And literature provided by the U.S. National Toxicology Program concludes that fluoride is linked to decreased IQ in children.
“Despite EPA’s expert’s finding that fluoride is hazardous, EPA points to technical aspects at various stages of the risk assessment to conclude that fluoride presents no unreasonable risk,” Chen said. “Essentially, EPA argues that the level of hazard and the precise relationship between dose and response at low exposure levels are not entirely clear. These arguments are not persuasive.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
