VIDEO: Linda Birnbaum’s Statement on Fluoride Neurotoxicity

The video below speaks for itself and should be shared far and wide repeatedly with decision-makers, journalists, friends, family, and within your community.

Proponents of fluoridation often say at hearings and in media interviews that there is unanimous support within the public health community for fluoridation.

This is obviously a myth. FAN has over 4,800 medical and scientific professionals who have signed our statement in opposition to fluoridation, and our coalition partners like the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, as well as the International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine, represent thousands of dental professionals opposed to fluoridation.

Let’s also not forget that 95% of the world—and the health authorities in most of these countries–-have rejected the practice of fluoridation in favor of alternative oral health programs.

In our video introducing our year-end fundraiser, we mentioned that the pro-fluoridation lobby was losing its stranglehold on members of the U.S. government’s public health infrastructure due to the large volume of studies, many funded by the U.S. government, linking fluoride exposure to impaired brain development in children. Today, we’re sharing a new video to give you an example of what we mean.

We want to emphasize the qualifications of the person featured in this 6-minute long video. Dr. Birnbaum is considered one of the foremost toxicologists of our era, serving as a scientist for the U.S. federal government for 40 years.

With your support, FAN can continue to alert experts like Dr. Birnbaum to the large body of science linking serious side-effects to fluoride exposures commonly experienced by residents living in fluoridated communities. Your support will also help us amplify their message when they speak out, defend them when the dental lobby attacks, and make sure their message gets into the hands of federal, state, and local decision-makers.

Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S, is a microbiologist and board-certified toxicologist. She was director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) from 2009 to 2019.

Prior to her appointment as NIEHS and NTP director in 2009, she spent 19 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she directed the largest division focusing on environmental health research. Birnbaum started her federal career with 10 years at NIEHS, first as a senior staff fellow in the National Toxicology Program, then as a principal investigator and research microbiologist, and finally as a group leader for the institute’s Chemical Disposition Group.

She was an adjunct professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as in the Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program at Duke University. Dr. Birnbaum was vice president of the International Union of Toxicology, the umbrella organization for toxicology societies in more than 50 countries; former president of the Society of Toxicology, the largest professional organization of toxicologists in the world; and former chair of the Division of Toxicology at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

She is the author of more than 700 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and reports. Birnbaum’s research focused on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals, mechanisms of action of toxicants including endocrine disruption, and linking of real-world exposures to health effects.

Dr. Birnbaum has won numerous awards for her work, including being elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health. She was also elected to the Collegium Ramazzini, has two NIH Director’s Award, a Women in Toxicology Elsevier Mentoring Award, an EPA Health Science Achievement Award, an American Public Health Association Homer N. Calver Award, a Children’s Environmental Health Network Child Health Advocate Award, a Surgeon General’s Medallion, and 14 Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards, which reflected the recommendations of EPA’s external Science Advisory Board, for specific publications.

Birnbaum is now a Special Volunteer at NIEHS, and conducts research as part of the Mechanistic Toxicology Branch, and is a scholar in residence at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

During Dr. Birnbaum’s tenure at NIEHS and NTP, the Fluoride Action Network was regularly submitting and communicating concerns about fluoride neurotoxicity with her agency and office. In 2020, Dr. Birnbaum joined award-winning researchers Christine Till, Ph.D., and Bruce Lanphear, M.D., MPH, in writing an OpEd highlighting mounting evidence showing that fluoride is likely impairing brain development and reducing kids’ IQ. The video below was recorded during a public Zoom presentation that Dr. Birnbaum made to environmental advocates about her life and her work as part of a webinar series hosted by The Center for Health, Environment, and Justice.

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