Excerpts

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) plans to release its long-awaited review of fluoride’s potential neurotoxic effects this fall, but also plans to publish additional information, such as a dose-response analysis, later, setting an uncertain timeline for a TSCA suit seeking to ban drinking water fluoridation that is on hold pending NTP’s findings.

“NTP is carefully considering all comments from [the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)] and plans to release a state of the science document this fall. We will also be publishing our meta-analysis and dose-response analysis separately,” NTP’s Kyla Taylor said during a June 29 session of the Society of Birth Defects Research & Prevention’s annual meeting, held virtually this year.

The ongoing toxicology review has played a central role in the long-running suit Food & Water Watch, Inc. (FWW), et al., v. EPA, where anti-fluoridation groups are trying to overturn the agency’s rejections of their two Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) petitions seeking a ban on the practice of drinking water fluoridation.

Judge Edward Chen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has repeatedly delayed ruling on whether the denials were scientifically justified, even ordering the plaintiffs to file a new petition following a trial last summer — which the Trump EPA rejected shortly before the transition.

Chen has noted that the case puts him in the position of reaching a scientific conclusion on fluoride’s toxicity, rather than leaving that finding to a federal agency with scientific expertise.

… The National Toxicology Program (NTP) plans to release its long-awaited review of fluoride’s potential neurotoxic effects this fall, but also plans to publish additional information, such as a dose-response analysis, later, setting an uncertain timeline for a TSCA suit seeking to ban drinking water fluoridation that is on hold pending NTP’s findings.

“NTP is carefully considering all comments from [the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)] and plans to release a state of the science document this fall. We will also be publishing our meta-analysis and dose-response analysis separately,” NTP’s Kyla Taylor said during a June 29 session of the Society of Birth Defects Research & Prevention’s annual meeting, held virtually this year.

The ongoing toxicology review has played a central role in the long-running suit Food & Water Watch, Inc. (FWW), et al., v. EPA, where anti-fluoridation groups are trying to overturn the agency’s rejections of their two Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) petitions seeking a ban on the practice of drinking water fluoridation.

Judge Edward Chen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has repeatedly delayed ruling on whether the denials were scientifically justified, even ordering the plaintiffs to file a new petition following a trial last summer — which the Trump EPA rejected shortly before the transition.

Chen has noted that the case puts him in the position of reaching a scientific conclusion on fluoride’s toxicity, rather than leaving that finding to a federal agency with scientific expertise.

… But another speaker on the panel, Indiana University dental school professor Angeles Martinez-Mier, reminded the audience that fluoridation has benefits for oral health and other solutions are not always easily available to those with limited access to dental care. She urged attendees to remember that the “public health officials should work on developing policies that optimize the benefits of fluoride and minimize the detrimental effects,” and that fluoride is “not like other toxicants that do not present any benefits.”

*Original article online at https://insideepa.com/tsca-news/ntp-eyes-rolling-release-fluoride-findings-seen-key-tsca-suit

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