September 30, 2015
The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) has delivered a 100-page report to the Environmental Justice Interagency Working Group entitled “Water Fluoridation and Environmental Justice” outlining the dangers posed by this practice to poor families and communities of color. Since 1962 officials at the U.S. Public Health Service have known that Blacks are disproportionately harmed by fluoride with higher rates of dental fluorosis (permanent damage to the enamel) rates compared to Whites. But for over 40 years they hid this information from communities of color.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, FAN discovered that in 2005, 58% of Blacks had dental fluorosis compared to 32% of Whites.
The heart of the problem is that no Federal agency accepts responsibility for the safety of this program. Instead the Division of Oral Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has become a “rogue elephant” blindly promoting fluoridation, denying any harm and failing miserably to provide any warnings to communities of color of their vulnerabilities. This has prompted Civil Rights leaders to call for Congressional hearings.
According to FAN’s director, Paul Connett, PhD, “The situation has become much worse now that it is clear that fluoride is an endocrine disruptor and is neurotoxic. There are 45 studies that fluoride at modest levels lowers IQ in children (www.FluorideAction.net/issues/health/brain ).”