Fluoridation and the Detrimental Effects of the EPA’s Toxic Substance Control Act Violations

• In Event: Addressing Human Rights, Conflict, and Public Heath

Abstract

Scholarly sources confirm fluoride is almost as toxic as arsenic, yet industrial-waste fluoride is found in water supplies, foods, beverages, pesticides, and other ingested products. Fluoride has not been approved for ingestion by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is classified as a drug. Following scientific findings of the detrimental health effects of fluoride added to water to prevent dental caries, the FDA and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were inundated with requests to ban fluoride from water. In 2020, the EPA was sued for violating the Toxic Substances Control Act (1976) by failing to mandate fluoride safety. This integrative review synthesized 25 contemporary studies to evaluate fluoride’s probable harmful and beneficial effects. Findings suggest that fluoride’s physiological toxicity outweighs its beneficial dental effects. Effects of ingested fluoride include neurotoxicity, cancer, and others; large-scale education on these must commence to improve public health and safety. This would require greater transparency of evidence, as well as opportunities to present updated scientific findings to the public, governing bodies, institutions, organizations, and healthcare facilities. New toxicology standards for fluoride compounds would necessitate changes to municipal water fluoridation, sales of fluoride-containing dental treatments, foods, beverages, pesticides, rodenticides, non-stick cookware, and cooking coal.

Authors

• T. Avra Rossman, San Jose State University

• Harit K. Agroia, San Jose State University

• Jodie A. Warren, San Jose State University