NEW YORK | A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.
Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. For five decades before that, the recommended upper range was 1.2. The World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5.
The City of Aurora does not add fluoride to water because most Colorado mountain run-off water is naturally fluoridated from mineral content. City water officials say they’re following the legal and regulatory changes closely.
“Our most recent water quality monitoring for fluoride between Sept. 1, 2023, and Sept. 25, 2024, shows results between 1.1 ppm and 0.576 ppm,” of fluoride in drinking water provide to Aurora customers, Aurora water spokesperson Shonnie Cline said in a statement to the Sentinel.
The current regulated limit for fluoride is 4 p.p.m.
But those are the previous limits set primarily for bone and teeth.
Aurora’s next steps will be dictated by what the courts and federal officials do.
“Aurora Water will be monitoring any next steps that the EPA takes with respect to potentially reducing the MCL for fluoride,” Cline said. “The health and wellbeing of the people who live and work in Aurora are our primary focus. We will take the necessary actions to ensure we continue to provide drinking water that meets all federal and state water quality standards.”
If the city were to have to further reduce the naturally occurring fluoride levels in Aurora drinking water, the process would be arduous and probably costly.
“Due to the chemical nature of fluoride, it can be challenging to remove from water, as conventional treatment does not significantly reduce fluoride concentrations,” Cline said. Options to remove fluoride from the water would include “ion exchange and reverse osmosis, both of which involve substantial construction and operational costs.”
City water officials did not provide any cost estimates for compliance with lower levels.
“If the EPA implements a standard for fluoride lower than what is found in our source water, Aurora Water will evaluate the effectiveness and costs of various treatment options to determine the most appropriate solution,” Cline said.
This is the first time a federal judge has made a determination about the neurodevelopmental risks to children of the recommended U.S. water fluoride level, said Ashley Malin, a University of Florida researcher who has studied the effect of higher fluoride levels in pregnant women.
She called it “the most historic ruling in the U.S. fluoridation debate that we’ve ever seen.”
The judge’s ruling is another striking dissent to a practice that has been hailed as one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last month, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.
The EPA — a defendant in the lawsuit — argued that it wasn’t clear what impact fluoride exposure might have at lower levels. But the agency is required to make sure there is a margin between the hazard level and exposure level. And “if there is an insufficient margin, then the chemical poses a risk,” Chen wrote in his 80-page ruling Tuesday.
“Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA” under federal law, he wrote.
An EPA spokesperson, Jeff Landis, said the agency was reviewing the decision but offered no further comment.
In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and they continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later.
Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population currently gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data.
Separately, the EPA has a longstanding requirement that water systems cannot have more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. That standard is designed to prevent skeletal fluorosis, a potentially crippling disorder which causes weaker bones, stiffness and pain.
But in the last two decades, studies have suggested a different problem: a link between fluoride and brain development. Researchers wondered about the impact on developing fetuses and very young children who might ingest water with baby formula. Studies in animals showed fluoride could impact neurochemistry cell function in brain regions responsible for learning, memory, executive function and behavior.
The court case, argued in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, started in 2017. The lead plaintiff was a not-for-profit advocacy environmental advocacy organization named Food & Water Watch. Chen paused the proceedings in 2020 to await the results of the National Toxicology Program report, but he heard lawyers’ arguments about the case earlier this year.
“In our view, the only effective way to eliminate the risk from adding fluoride chemicals to water is to stop adding them,” said Michael Connett, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, in an email Thursday.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The kind of fluoride they add to drinking water is not natural but left over chemicals from the manufacturing of aluminum products soda and beer cans. They have so much fluoride left over it would cost them millions of dollars to dispose of it. It was then in the 1950’s they came up with the idea to dump it in the water and call it helpful for peoples teeth and bones and get cities to buy it. It’s really just poison.
This is just another attempt by the Federal Government to put more of its tentacles of regulation into our state. Aurora’s water has not changed in decades, and the overwhelming majority of kids growing up in our great city have been just fine. I’m tired of the government coming in and imposing its regulations because a small minority of people might be affected by one thing or another. Washington DC; LEAVE US ALONE!!!