Last February, the Albany Common Council voted to approve water fluoridation, and Mayor Kathy Sheehan signed the bill into law. At the time, the bill’s chief sponsor, Tom Hoey, promised he would work to repeal the law if a then-in-progress federal lawsuit concluded that fluoridated water is dangerous. Hoey said, according to WAMC, that if the court “finds that fluoride is not good for the water, of course, myself and the rest of the council will withdraw the legislation to put fluoride in the water.”
On Sept. 24, a U.S. District Court judge in California issued his long-awaited ruling in Food & Water Watch v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He determined that water fluoridation poses an “unreasonable risk of such injury” and ordered the EPA to update its regulations.
After reviewing dozens of studies worldwide, Judge Edward Chen wrote: “Specifically, the court finds that fluoridation of water at… the level presently considered ‘optimal’ in the United States — poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children.” He also wrote: “The scientific literature in the record provides a high level of certainty that a hazard is present; fluoride is associated with reduced IQ. The qualitative evidence is superior.”
Chen’s ruling was based in part on the National Toxicology Program’s systematic eight-year review of fluoride’s neurotoxicity. That report, part of which was issued in August, asserted “with moderate confidence” that a large body of evidence shows fluoride exposure is “consistently associated with lower IQ in children.”
I hope Hoey will keep his promise and sponsor legislation to rescind the fluoridation law and for the Common Council to pass it.
Original article online at: https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/letters-19889986.php