Health Officials Delayed Report Linking Fluoride to Brain Harm – By Dan Ross (Mother Jones) / Mar 21 2023
Records show dental groups urged Department of Health and Human Services to alter report they believed threatened water fluoridation.
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This piece was published originally by Capital & Main.
Last May, the National Toxicology Program (NTP), a federal research agency, was set to release its eagerly awaited report into the cognitive and neurodevelopmental impacts on humans from fluoride exposure.
The report was anticipated for several reasons, including its review of studies linking fluoridated water to cognitive harm in children. Water fluoridation is the long-established public policy of adding fluoride to drinking water to fight tooth decay. The report was also set to play a key role in an ongoing lawsuit, filed by government accountability nonprofit Food & Water Watch, to get the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate water fluoridation because of fluoride’s possible neurotoxic harm. More than two years ago, the judge put the case on hold in expectation of the NTP report’s public release.
Before the NTP could release the report, however, “They were blocked,” said Linda Birnbaum, NTP director until 2019. According to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records obtained by the plaintiffs and shared with Capital & Main, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) held back the release of the report after criticism of its findings from health and dental organizations that advocate for community water fluoridation. Those groups challenged the report’s scientific validity and expressed concern that it could jeopardize water fluoridation, which they said could especially impact the dental health of low income communities.
