December 16, 2025 | Fluoride Action Network.
Compiled by Michael F. Dolan, PhD
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Santa Fe, a State Capital, Ends Fluoridation Over Cost and Health Concerns
The Santa Fe, New Mexico City Council has voted unanimously to end the addition of fluoride chemicals into the City’s water supply, joining a wave of over 80 communities choosing to ditch or reject the practice since FAN’s victory in federal court.
In a report in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Public Utilities Director Jesse Roach noted that the City was not in compliance with the federal recommendation to supply a 0.7 milligram per liter or parts per million (ppm) concentration of fluoride in that the City Code still directed his department to fluoridate the water at a concentration between 0.8 ppm to 1.2 ppm.
Roach said the City’s water supply is naturally fluoridated at between 0.3 and 0.6 ppm, adding it would cost half a million dollars to upgrade equipment to meet the 0.7 ppm federal recommendation.
“It seemed prudent for us to hold off on actively adding fluoride, to continue to monitor what we see in the system without adding any,” Roach said, according to the paper.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported, “Roach said there is debate on the potential for fluoride, even at the CDC-recommended level, to carry the risk of cognitive impairment in children.”
Australian State Losing Enthusiasm for Fluoridation
After the Gympie Regional Council voted to end fluoridation on September 24, becoming the third council in the state of Queensland to do so in the past year, advocates for fluoridation have become increasingly vexed over the public’s lack of enthusiasm for the public health policy.
As The Guardian (UK) reported it, “Queenslanders can decide on whether to add fluoride to the water at a local government level – and council by council they’re voting it out.”
In addition to the Gympie council’s vote, Cook Shire Council voted to end the practice in February, Cairns Council ended it in December, and Banana Shire Council voted not to restart fluoridation after having ended it in 2020.
“The council’s verdict has left Queensland public health experts gagging,” according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Opposition politician Steven Miles denounced the state’s premier, David Crisafulli, for giving local councils the decision on fluoridation when he was local’s minister in 2012, according to the ABC.
While most Queensland residents, centered around the fluoridated capital of Brisbane, consume fluoridated water, only 16 of the state’s 77 local government areas fluoridate their water, according to the ABC. The Guardian reports 56 regional councils do not fluoridate, five do, and five have naturally occurring fluoride.
According to The Guardian, [Gympie] Council staff recommended the change after receiving a 651-signature petition…It did so despite a briefing by the state’s chief dental officer and other health experts.”
Toxin’s Corrosiveness Frustrates Bloomington’s Effort to Fluoridate
The City of Bloomington, Indiana has not fluoridated its water supply for five years because of fluoride’s unrelenting corrosive effect on the water supply’s storage vessel, according to the new director of the City’s water system.
According to a report in The Herald-Times October 1, “[S]ince late 2019, due to an erosion of the City of Bloomington Utilities’ (CBU) water tank lining, Bloomington’s tap water supply has generally sat around 0.1 milligrams or less of fluoride per liter of water…”
The paper reported, “refluoridating the water has proven complicated. Hydrofluorosilicic acid – a corrosive liquid that’s applied to water to add fluoride – is the very thing eroding the tank, which [CBU director Kat] Zaiger says is 20 years old. The tank was relined with an epoxy lining in 2022, Zaiger said, but erosion has continued.”
“I don’t know the actual average ‘lifespan’ of a fluoride tank, but I know ours is reaching that, and so it’s just a costly matter of replacing tanks, replacing lines, replacing valves,” Zaiger said at a Sept. 16 meeting with the Board of Health.
She also stated that, “erosion of the tank and the concrete underneath it poses a risk to CBU employees who might be exposed to hydrofluorosilicic acid,” according to the paper.
While fluoride’s corrosiveness, such as of water supply storage tanks, leaded service lines, hot water heaters, and various industrial applications, is generally not a main topic in current debates on the continuation of water fluoridation, it is sometimes the reason why fluoridation is ended administratively by cities and water districts.
Chronic Fluoride Exposure in Water Disrupts Cholesterol Levels
Exposure to fluoride in drinking water hinders the production of cholesterol in ways that may increase the risk of heart disease, according to a new report in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.
A recent investigation from Harbin Medical University and other institutions that included toxicology studies of mice and a study of a human population suffering from endemic fluorosis has concluded that fluoride exposure is associated with a decrease in cholesterol synthesis, including in the cells lining blood vessels that may increase the risk of heart disease.
According to the authors “fluoride led to significant detachment and pathological alterations of endothelial cells in mouse aorta.”
They found that in mice raised for three months on fluoridated water the toxin interfered with the production of two key enzymes needed for the synthesis of cholesterol, a crucial chemical component of cell membranes that gives the membrane a more solid, flexible integrity.
According to the authors, “Previous studies have found that fluoride can cause intimal thickening of the human carotid artery, suggesting its potential to induce endothelial cell injury. Additionally, fluoride has been found to cause vascular endothelial cell misalignment, detachment, and dysfunction. Endothelial cell injury is an early stage in the development of cardiovascular diseases.”
Having first detected the fluoride-induced chemical perturbation in a well-studied mouse model, finding reduced levels of cholesterol in the mouse serum, for example, the scientists then conducted an epidemiological study of a human population, confirming that those suffering from fluorosis experience a reduction of cholesterol in their blood.
“Fluoride was found to decrease the level of serum HDL-C [high density lipoprotein cholesterol] in the population,” they report.
The research reflects a growing trend amongst scientists to take low level fluoride exposure more seriously.
The authors noted, “With advancing research on the mechanisms of fluoride-induced physiological damage, scientific understanding has expanded beyond the toxicity of high fluoride exposure. Recent studies have found and suggested that long-term exposure to low concentrations of fluoride (even below 1.0 mg/L) may also cause potential multi-system damage. These effects extend beyond the traditional concerns for teeth and bones, gradually encompassing systems such as the immune system, nervous system, endocrine system, and reproductive development system. This reveals the more complex biological effects of fluoride and its potential health risks, prompting a more cautious global reevaluation of water fluoridation policies and ongoing scientific research.”
They highlighted concerns over early life exposure to fluoride, writing, “Children are in a critical period of growth and development, with active metabolism and organs that are more susceptible to environmental toxins. Early-life fluoride exposure (including prenatal, infancy, and childhood) may be associated with disruptions in cholesterol metabolism, endothelial dysfunction, and increased cardiovascular risk later in life. There is substantial evidence that excessive fluoride exposure in childhood is associated with more severe toxic effects, including neurodevelopmental toxicity and dental fluorosis. In addition to drinking water, modern children may ingest fluoride in a number of ways: sugar-sweetened beverages, toothpaste and oral care products.”
Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2025.119160
Fluoride-Induced Cognitive Decline Traced to Death of Nerve Cells
In a toxicological study using rats and high doses of fluoride, scientists at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology have found that fluoride damages the functioning of mitochondria in nerve cells by perturbing protein synthesis, and causing inflammation and cell death. They argue this is the basis of cognitive impairment caused by fluoride exposure.
As toxicologists become more familiar with the neurotoxic effects of fluoride, particularly in countries like China that suffer from widespread natural fluoride poisoning from ground water, more detailed cellular and molecular studies are unlocking the chemical mechanisms for the loss of intelligence.
The authors of a new study in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety recall, “Our previous in vivo studies [of live animals] revealed that fluoride exposure induced pathological alterations in rat hippocampal neurons, characterized by increased Nissl body density and mitochondrial abnormalities including swelling and vacuolation. These structural changes were associated with neurodevelopmental deficits and cognitive dysfunction.”
After presenting a detailed review of fluoride’s molecular effects on mitochondria, the cell structures where food is converted into chemical energy, the authors explain how they found fluoride interfered with protein synthesis in the mitochondria in a way that led to pyroptosis, cell death caused by inflammation, the same response seen in some cases of intracellular infections.
The authors justified the higher doses used, two to ten times normally found in drinking water, stating, “The in vivo dosage was determined based on preliminary studies and converted from epidemiological research data, which allows for an accelerated simulation of the effects of lifetime cumulative exposure in high-risk populations.”
They noted that future research needs to include mitochondrial data from human populations living in areas of severe endemic fluorosis.
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147651325015325
Hydrolyzed Infant Formula “Could Pose Health risk” Says New Study
A study of various infant formulas available in Tenerife, Spain found that most formulas themselves do not contain fluoride at a level that could exceed regulatory safety limits, but that hydrolyzed formulas, that include predigested proteins, can expose children to significant amounts of the toxin.
The report, published October 30 in the journal Foods, focused particularly on hydrolyzed formulas, which the authors describe as follows: “They contain predigested proteins that do not require enzymatic hydrolysis by the pancreas and are more easily absorbed in the proximal small intestine. They are produced from milk formulas treated with heat, enzymatic hydrolysis, and ultrafiltration to remove higher-molecular-weight peptides, thereby reducing antigenicity.”
The authors, from the University of La Laguna, analyzed fluoride content of 46 samples of various brands of infant formula that they do not identify. The Starter (Type 1), Follow-Up (Type 2) and Growing-Up (Type 3) formulas did not approach the US National Institutes of Health Upper Level (UL) for fluoride per day when given in one or even three 90 milliliter servings. However, some of the hydrolyzed formulas approached the UL in just one serving, and exceeded it with three servings, according to the report.
“[H]ydrolyzed formulas can pose a risk to health, if we consider the contribution from the brand that registers the maximum value in this group, offering a contribution percentage of 94.1% of the UL with only 1 serving of 90 mL in the age group of 0–6 months. Likewise, the risk is repeated in the age group of 7 to 12 months and in the group of 1 to 3 years of age, due to the same brand (73.2% and 50.7% of the UL, respectively). In these cases, and assuming that the water with which the bottles are prepared may contain fluoride, there would be a risk of high intake of this toxic anion,” conclude the authors.
“The dietary intake assessment indicated that some brands of hydrolyzed formulas could pose a health risk, providing up to 94.1% of the UL with only one 90 mL serving in the 0–6-month age group,” they reiterate.
The authors also found that almost all of the formulas they tested contained much more fluoride than the concentration indicated on the labels, many containing 1000% more than reported.
“When comparing declared and measured concentrations, approximately 95% of the samples showed higher fluoride levels than those stated on their labels (positive discrepancy), while 4.8% recorded lower values (negative discrepancy),” they wrote.
The authors recommend, “that a regulatory framework be established to control fluoride concentrations in infant formulas and require accurate labeling of fluoride content for all formula types (Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, and hydrolyzed). In approximately 41.3% of the analyzed samples, manufacturers did not specify fluoride concentrations. Additionally, parents and caregivers should be informed about the fluoride content of the tap or bottled water used for formula preparation, as this can significantly increase total fluoride intake and consequently the risk to infant health.”
Source: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14213728
•• Michael Dolan can be contacted at <mdolan.ecsn@outlook.com>