Our Accomplishments
While institutions that promote water fluoridation and other fluoride products have infinitely more resources than FAN will ever have, FAN has proven capable of taking on and winning the big battles. FAN’s outsized effectiveness is highlighted by the fact that the largest dental organization in the United States (the American Dental Association), has deemed it necessary to purchase the domain FluorideAlert.com as a means of diverting would-be FAN visitors to their pro-fluoride website.
The following are just some of FAN’s accomplishments:
Helped Hundreds of Local Groups End or Reject Water Fluoridation Programs
In addition to being the most comprehensive source of fluoride-related information on the internet, FAN has helped many local groups from around the world end or fend off water fluoridation programs since its formation in 2000. While the success of a local campaign is quintessentially the product of the local group’s own efforts, FAN has provided, and continues to provide, timely information, advice, contacts, and public presentations to communities trying to reduce their fluoride burden.
Reversed the Trend of CDC Fluoridation Expansion
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has been spending tens of millions of dollars in US taxpayer money over the past decade to expand water fluoridation. Their Health People objectives have repeatedly included expanding fluoridation to 77% of the population. But they’ve had to keep pushing out the target date, now to the year 2030. Due to activism from FAN and concerned citizens, the opposite has happened over the past decade, with the latest CDC stats showing that the percentage of the U.S. population served by community water systems receiving fluoridated water is decreasing steadily, from 74.6% in 2012 down to 72.7 in 2020. The percentage of the U.S. population receiving so-called “optimally fluoridated” water from either natural or artificial sources combined also decreased, from 67.1% to 62.9%. The number of water systems that stopped the addition of fluoridation chemicals to their water included at least 1,413 communities from 2010 to 2020.
Sued the U.S. EPA in Federal Court Over the Neurotoxicity of Fluoridation Chemicals
Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, a group of non-profits and individuals led by the Fluoride Action Network petitioned the U.S. EPA in 2016 to end the addition of fluoridation chemicals into drinking water due to fluoride’s impairment of brain development during fetal and infant stages of life. The EPA rejected the petition without conducting an adequate assessment or following typical assessment procedures and guidelines. In response, we sued EPA in Federal Court in 2017. A seven-day trial was held in June 2020, and eight more trial days were held in February 2024, featuring testimony in our favor from several of the world’s leading scientists. A ruling is expected in the Spring of 2024, and if it’s in our favor, it will require the EPA to regulate fluoridation chemicals, so they no longer pose an unreasonable risk to human health.
Successfully Lobbied EPA to Phase Out Sulfuryl Fluoride as a Fumigant on Food
For ten years, FAN challenged an attempt by Dow AgroSciences to add a fluoride-based pesticide (sulfuryl fluoride) to the U.S. food supply. Although Dow is a corporation with no shortage of power and influence, and although it won most of the battles during the ten years, FAN persisted and convinced the EPA in January 2011 to phase-out all food-based uses of sulfuryl fluoride in the United States. While FAN was grossly outspent, we continually maximized our only two advantages — the law and the facts — by filing detailed submissions to the EPA and soliciting the support of the Environmental Working Group, Beyond Pesticides, and the New York Attorney General’s Office.
Became a Leading Source of Information on Fluoride for Journalists
Stories on FAN’s work and statements from our representatives have been included in news pieces by national media outlets including Popular Science, New York Times, Science Magazine, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Nature, Newsweek, TIME Magazine, UnDark Magazine, Reuters, FOX, USA Today, Scientific American, Bloomberg, NBC, The Atlantic, San Francisco Chronical, and Prevention Magazine among others.
Successfully Lobbied for Nation’s First Infant/Fluoride Warning Bill
In June of 2012, New Hampshire’s Governor signed into law a bill that requires water departments in the state to warn customers of the risk fluoridated water poses to infants. The bill, which was the result of a prolonged outreach and lobbying campaign by FAN’s Campaign Director, requires that New Hampshire water suppliers provide their customers the following warning: “Your public water supply is fluoridated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if your child under the age of 6 months is exclusively consuming infant formula reconstituted with fluoridated water, there may be an increased chance of dental fluorosis. Consult your child’s health care provider for more information.” Previously, in 2005, FAN convinced the City of Burlington Vermont to issue a similar warning. New Hampshire, however, is the first state to pass this law on a statewide level, and the victory there led to numerous other cities, towns, and states creating similar warnings.
Helped Defeat Numerous State Legislative Attempts to Mandate Fluoridation Since 2012
More than a dozen bills have been introduced in states like New Jersey, Hawaii, Nevada, and Washington state attempting to mandate statewide fluoridation for all communities. FAN has successfully led advocacy efforts to oppose all of these attempts, potentially sparing over 12 million people from having fluoridation chemicals forcefully added to their drinking water.
Protected Citizens from an Unethical Human fluoridation Experiment in Kinston
The children of Lenoir County, North Carolina are being recruited for an unethical human experiment that will expose them to levels of fluoride that have been shown in many peer-reviewed studies to cause harm to the developing brain. Parent’s aren’t being warned by the study administrators about the potential risks involved, so the Fluoride Action Network started a collaborative campaign in the summer of 2022 with locals citizens, community leaders, and professionals in North Carolina to warn parents and protect these vulnerable infants and toddlers. Our efforts have been working. We’ve been successful at directly contacting hundreds of new parents, and the WaterBest study has submitted an updated status to NIH and they’re still in the “recruiting” phase after two years; far beyond their original expectations. They’re now increasing their online marketing, which includes new videos appealing to local residents.
Got the National Toxicology Program to do a Review of Fluoride Neurotoxicity
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) performed a Systematic Review of Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health Effects. This Review was initiated in 2016 in response to a nomination from FAN. After a 6-year long systematic review of fluoride’s impact on the developing brain, a court order ultimately led to the NTP making public their finalized report that was blocked by US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leadership and concealed from the public for the past 10 months. The NTP reported 52 of 55 studies found decreases in child IQ associated with increase in fluoride, a remarkable 95% consistency.
Revealed Government Censorship of Neurotoxicity Report and Forced its Release
The final report of a 6-year National Toxicology Program (NTP) review of fluoride neurotoxicity was blocked from public release by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Administrator in May 2022. But under an agreement reached in a FAN’s lawsuit against the EPA, the report was made public today along with a table of contents. Also released were comments from external peer-reviewers and internal HHS departments, along with NTP’s responses. The review considered all human studies of fluoride’s effect on the developing brain. Its conclusion confirmed and strengthened the findings from two earlier draft versions released in 2019 and 2020. External peer-reviewers all agreed with the report’s conclusion that prenatal and early life fluoride exposures can reduce IQ.
Recruited Thousands of Professional Signers
Over 4,800 medical and scientific professionals, including 580 medical doctors, 537 PhD scientists (including three co-authors of the National Research Council’s landmark review on fluoride toxicity), 378 dentists, 629 chiropractors, 860 registered nurses, 176 naturopathic doctors, 130 registered dental hygienists, and 106 pharmacists have gone on record since 2007 as opposing water fluoridation by signing FAN’s Professionals Statement to End Water Fluoridation.
FAN Representatives Have Presented Expert Testimony Before Many Government Bodies
FAN’s staff and professional representatives have made presentations and provided expert testimony before countless government bodies, including water authorities, city councils, boards of health, state legislative committees, congressional committees, the National Toxicology Program, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Research Council, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Irish Parliamentary Committee, the Israeli Knesset, the Irish Ministery of Health, and many more. FAN’s former director, Paul Connett, gave more than 2,500 public presentations in 49 states in the U.S., 7 provinces in Canada, and extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and many more.
Worked with Legislators to Reverse State Mandates and Prohibit Fluoridation
FAN has led lobbying efforts in state legislatures over the past decade to reverse the trend in favor of fluoridation expansion to the recent trend of trying to reverse state fluoridation mandates and prohibit the practice altogether. FAN’s work has led to bills in Georgia, Nebraska, Arkansas, Connecticut, and Kentucky to end their state mandates. Our work has also led to the introduction of bills to prohibit fluoridation in Hawaii, New Hampshire, Iowa, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Massachusetts.
Made Numerous Government Submissions
FAN has made countless submissions to governments around the world, educating officials about the dangers posed by fluoride and fluoridation, petitioning them to take action and amend policies, as well as to create a paper trail for accountability. FAN is constantly monitoring government activity looking for opportunities to increase transparency, improve fluoridation policy, and create accountability for unethical and unsafe policy decisions.
Triggered NIH Investigation into Scientific Misconduct at Harvard Dental School
In 2005, FAN uncovered documents indicating that Dr. Chester Douglass, a Colgate-affiliated dental researcher at Harvard Dental School had suppressed and misrepresented the results of his NIH-funded study on fluoride and bone cancer in boys. The discovery sparked national headlines, and an NIH-ethics complaint by the Environmental Working Group. Although a year-long investigation by Harvard concluded that Douglass did not “intentionally” misrepresent his data, the national scrutiny helped ensure that a Harvard doctoral dissertation linking fluoridated water to bone cancer was published in a scientific forum where it had always belonged — rather than gathering dust, as it had done for four years, in the basement of the Harvard Medical Library.
Provided Extensive Information on Fluoride Toxicity to National Research Council (NRC)
Between 2003 and 2005, FAN submitted extensive analysis and documentation to a panel of the National Research Council (NRC) that was charged with reviewing the adequacy of the EPA’s safe drinking water standard for fluoride. The panel invited FAN’s Executive Director, Dr. Paul Connett, to give a presentation alongside a dentist, Dr. William Maas, from the CDC. Maas argued that EPA’s standard was safe and appropriate, while FAN’s Director argued it was dangerously outdated. The CDC has far more resources than FAN, but FAN won the argument. In 2006, the NRC issued a groundbreaking report concluding that EPA’s drinking water standard for fluoride is unsafe and should be lowered.
Translated Previously Inaccessible Chinese Studies on Fluoride and IQ
FAN has conducted extensive searches of the Chinese literature on fluoride toxicity. In 2007, Michael Connett accessed and arranged translations for 20 studies investigating fluoride’s impact on the brain, including 10 studies finding reduced childhood intelligence. In 2008, 18 of these 20 studies were published in the English-language journal Fluoride, thus helping to ensure that the findings would be considered by US regulatory agencies and the larger scientific community. In July of 2012, a team of Harvard scientists published a meta-review of fluoride’s impact on IQ which cited and discussed 10 of the studies that FAN translated.