The fluoride wars rage on
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Fluoride (in yellow bucket) to be added to drinking water at a treatment plant in California. Michael Macor/Hearst/SFC via Getty
Michael Connett had been preparing for this moment for four years. The California-based attorney was headed to court, where he would be suing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Connett was slated to appear at the San Francisco federal courthouse on behalf of several individuals and advocacy groups. His contention: that supplemental water fluoridation is unsafe and should be halted. Immediately.
On the first day of the hearing, Connett woke up at 3.30 a.m. to put the finishing touches to his opening presentation. He downed a cup of coffee and an energy bar, then walked the two blocks from the hotel to his office, where he sat down, signed into Zoom and prepared to give his opening statement. The date was 8 June 2020, and the court had been closed to in-person business since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no bailiff, no audience sitting in the gallery. Instead of 50 onlookers in a physical courtroom, more than 500 people had signed in to view the virtual proceedings. They watched as Connett enumerated issues that have been bubbling up in the world of fluoride research.
The bulk of public opinion, based on decades of dental-health research, is against him — at least in the United States, where more than 63% of people have access to fluoridated water. One study after another, from the 1940s through to the 1970s, has pointed to fluoride as an important factor in preventing tooth decay, also known as caries. The mineral has become part of public-health lore, and has been hailed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the ten greatest public-health achievements of the twentieth century. Most people who live in areas with fluoridated water on tap take the benefits for granted and view with suspicion those who question the supplementation.
