Today, the Fluoride Action Network (FAN) is calling for the resignation of Casey Hannan, Director of the CDC Oral Health Division, for misleading the American people about the studies that have associated fluoride exposure with brain damage in children.

Paul Connett, PhD, FAN’s Executive Director, said Hannan did this when responding to a question he posed Hannan in writing a week before a webinar organized by the American Association of Dental Research (AADR) and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Connett asked Hannan if the recent studies funded by NIEHS and other US agencies that had found fluoride was linked to damage to children’s brains (loss of IQ) would lead to a halt of their promotion of water fluoridation and the establishment of a separate body at the CDC to review of these studies independent of the Oral Health Division.

Hannan responded:

“the bottom line is that the NIEHS published studies and others published around the world were looking at levels which are much higher than the recommended 0.7 mg/liter that the U.S. has” (see his answer to a question at 36 minutes)

In a new video response, Connett explains that Hannan’s answer is simply untrue and that Hannan – given a week to study the issue – should have known that this was untrue.

The truth is that four NIEHS funded studies (Bashash, 2017, 2018; Green, 2019 and Till, 2020) found damage to the brain in children exposed (either at the fetal or infant stages of life) either in fluoridated communities at 0.7ppm or at doses commonly experienced in fluoridated communities.

Whether Hannan is dishonest or incompetent, he should not be in charge of a division that influences the world on this issue. The CDC has been cited literally thousands of times in newspaper article and statements by public officials that, “Water fluoridation is one of the top public health achievements of the Twentieth Century” (CDC, 1999). In reality, water fluoridation is one of the greatest public health mistakes ever made.

Sadly, those who continue to promote fluoridation refuse to admit this. Usually they muddy the waters with PR spin, but in this case the titular head of the pro-fluoridation lobby stooped to an outright lie and he should face the consequences. No public health official should lie to the public. If they do they should be forced to resign.

What public health officials should be doing is to warn pregnant women and parents/caregivers who bottle-feed infants to avoid fluoridated water. No health agency in the fluoridated world has yet to do this. However, prominent individuals are beginning to do so. We urge anyone reading this to read the editorial by Drs. Linda Birnbaum (former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Bruce Lanphear and Christine Till.

So who do you trust more on the NIEHS-funded studies on fluoride’s neurotoxicity: Casey Hannan, head of the Oral Health Division of the CDC, or Linda Birnbaum, former head of the NIEHS and NTP?