Cavities, courts and controversy
For decades, fluoridated water has been a cornerstone of public health, credited with reducing cavities and improving oral health outcomes nationwide. Today, that foundation is under fire.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting a scientific review of the “potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water,” and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a vocal opponent of water fluoridation.
Johnny Johnson, DMD, MS, president of the American Fluoridation Society, has spent decades on education and advocacy efforts. He spoke to Dental Bite about the ongoing debate over fluoride and how he has defended this public health measure.
— Bianca Prieto, editor
The EPA is conducting a scientific review of fluoride in drinking water. If you could talk to this agency about its review and how it is being conducted, what would you say?
In 2017, the Fluoride Action Network and others asked the Environmental Protection Agency to review studies, and they did. They said the studies don’t rise to the level of scientific rigor that needs to be done. And so they refused it. That's where this lawsuit started against the EPA.
The EPA reevaluates fluoride in water at 2 to 4 parts per million every six years. Let them do their evaluation as they have always done and come out with their recommendations. So, no politics involved. Let them do their job as scientists.
How much concern is there regarding the outcome of the EPA’s review?
A lot of concern because in the lawsuit against the EPA, the judge really got his opinion wrong. There is no known hazard from water fluoridation.
Opponents have filed 108 lawsuits against fluoridation in U.S. courts since 1945. And the U.S. courts have never ruled that water fluoridation had to stop based on these challenges.
How is the American Fluoridation Society responding to the push to end water fluoridation across different states?
We have always pushed back with evidence-based science, and the opponents have always taken evidence: good science, good literature. They have cherry-picked pieces out of it. They have placed their own opinion into it, and as I say, they put it in a blender or spin it out and pour it out over an unsuspecting public.
It's no different now than it has been when I first got into my first foray into defending fluoridation. The county where I grew up and practiced, Pinellas County, Florida, stopped fluoridation in 2011 based on the same claims that are being made now.
When I heard them say, “We're cutting it off.” I said, “You're not doing this to my family.” I helped to raise these kids, and they're now parents. They're bringing their children into our offices. Everybody needs it, but especially the lowest economic families.
So, I jumped into it, others joined, and it took a year. Two of the four commissioners who voted fluoride out were running for reelection. Two former state legislative members who are in Florida stepped up and said, "We're going to bring fluoridation back the first day we're in office." Those two county commissioners were voted out resoundingly. We had fluoridation back 15 months later; 700,000 people got it back.
At that point, others needed to learn. They wanted help. So from 2012 on, we helped communities and states around the country that were being challenged on fluoridation.
Interview by Carrie Pallardy
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Dental Bite is curated and written by Carrie Pallardy and edited by Lesley McKenzie.
