The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is on trial in a federal district court in San Francisco over its failure and unwillingness to classify fluoride as being toxic to children’s brains and impairing children’s ability to learn. The stakes are high as fluoride products are currently being added to the drinking water of 200 million Americans and fluoridation is promoted in fifteen other countries. Further, fluoride, a powerfully toxic germ-killer, is used in most toothpastes sold in the US, and it is touted as being safe and effective in fluoride gels, rinses and varnishes that are widely used in dentistry.
The American Dental Association (ADA) is a bastion of fluoride promotion. ADA has long forged a close partnership with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the nation’s active fluoride promoter. The CDC works through state health departments which it heavily funds. CDC touts its water fluoridation efforts as “one of the greatest health achievements of the 20th century,”