We’ve had our best 24 hours of fundraising yet, but we’re counting on our supporters to please keep the momentum going until midnight on December 31st. Since yesterday, we’ve raised $3,680 from 22 donors, bringing our total to $50,426 from 370 donors. We’re incredibly grateful for everyone’s support!
As you can see, we’re still a good distance from our goal of $150,000 by midnight Dec 31st. This is to fund our budget for 2026, including our work helping citizens end fluoridation locally, or work lobbying in support of state legislation reversing mandates and prohibiting fluoridation, our continued improvement and maintenance of our website and educational databases, our work submitting comments to government agencies, our work educating the public and the media about the harms associated with fluoridation, and all the infrastructural overhead that comes with running a nonprofit. Nothing goes to waste here at FAN, and we operate as cost-efficiently as possible with limited staff and a large network of dedicated and passionate volunteers.
How To Make A Tax-Deductible Donation
- You can make your donation online using either our new secure fundraising page: https://fluoridealert.networkforgood.com/projects/176427-everyday-giving
- Or our original secure fundraising page if your computer you would like to donate via Paypal or if your browser is a bit older: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1415005
- You can also donate by check, payable and addressed to:
Fluoride Action Network
PO Box 85
North Sutton, NH 03260
The Battle Isn’t Over – Help Us Finish The Job
Based on comments I’ve received from some long-time supporters and organizers, it seems that some folks may mistakenly believe that the battle to end fluoridation is over. In fact, one long-time donor reached out to me asking why we still needed to fundraise since the lawsuit had been won. The truth is, we’re very close to ending fluoridation, and the dominos are definitely beginning to fall, but we still have some significant work to do. If this were the Super Bowl, we wouldn’t be in the end zone yet, but we’re definitely on the goal line.
We have to stay vigilant. The Lawsuit isn’t over yet. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has appealed our victory in federal court. The date for oral arguments has been set for early March, and a ruling can come months later. While this means we should have a ruling by late summer or early fall, there is also always the small chance that the ruling will be challenged all the way to the US Supreme Court. It will be up to FAN to finish the job when it comes to our lawsuit.
Our work is expanding, not contracting. We’ve had more requests for assistance from the media, from campaigners, from state legislators, and from city councilors than ever before and we expect it to grow even more. If we win our appeal and the EPA doesn’t challenge it, we do expect water systems across the country to end fluoridation in droves to get ahead of EPA rule making. That said, there will be many communities that will wait for the EPA to create new fluoridation rules, or won’t even know about our lawsuit victory. It will be up to FAN to finish the job and help educate every fluoridating community and help local citizens push for action by policy makers.
We have to remain an ever-present watchdog even if we win. If the EPA loses the appeal and chooses not to challenge it, they potentially have at least two years to promulgate rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to eliminate the risk posed to the developing brain by fluoridation. Politics is politics, and a lot can happen in two years within the EPA and in Washington, D.C. that can impact this rules process. FAN is expecting to have to work diligently throughout this multi-year process to ensure the letter of the law is followed.
State legislation will need to be passed. Twelve states have fluoridation mandates that can only be overturned with legislation. It can be a multi-year process, but would likely be required before hundreds, if not a few thousand communities in these states, could choose to end fluoridation. FAN will need to lead these efforts as we’re doing this legislative session in multiple states. (More on our state legislative work in tomorrow’s bulletin.)
Federal action requires our support. We’ve already had an impact at the federal level. First, the new HHS Director, Robert Kennedy, Jr., was in touch with FAN many years ago and has been following our lawsuit since it started, when he was just a consumer advocate and environmental lawyer. He and the current Presidential administration have expressed support for advising communities to end fluoridation. So far, they’ve closed the oral health branch of the CDC, which spent much of its time promoting fluoridation. They’ve also appointed new administrators to CDC leadership who are well educated on the risks associated with fluoridation. RFK has promised that the CDC would hold an interagency review, along with the EPA, to look at the safety of fluoridation. Representatives of these agencies have contacted FAN and have asked that we be a stakeholder in this process, offering our perspective, our experts, and the science showing harm and ineffectiveness. FAN was part of the recent FDA review of ingestible fluoride drugs, which ultimately led to the FDA banningtheir sale for children ages 3 and under. (More on federal action and our success with the FDA in Tuesday’s bulletin.)
We don’t know what the next administration will do, or how long we’ll have allies who understand the issue in these federal agencies, so it’s up to FAN to keep the is process moving forward and in way that is as nonpartisan and as science-based as possible.
Our opponents are doubling down. The American Dental Association (ADA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR), and other proponents of fluoridation are not giving up. You can see their statements following our victory in court below. These lobbying groups are also working with members of the US Senate and House of Representatives who they’ve donated heavily to in an effort to derail or delay federal action on fluoridation until a new fluoride-friendly administration is in power. Some Senators are now baselessly claiming that ending fluoridation would hurt our military readiness, while a team of Representatives has introduced legislation to require the EPA to consult with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine before they can take any action on new fluoridation rule making, which could significantly delay any protective actions. It will be up to FAN to defeat this bill and pushback against false claims by politicians who’ve lined their pockets with dental lobby donations. (More on this in the upcoming bulletin on federal action.)
Pro-fluoridation lobbying group statements:
–ADA
–AAP
Together we can finish the job and make history. Will you help us?
Thank you,
Stuart Cooper
Executive Director