EPA’s Final Witnesses Concede Fluoride’s Harm, Admit to Flaws in Key Study as Trial Closes

A risk assessor for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency admitted fluoride is neurotoxic at relatively…

Children's Health Defense

Editor’s note: The Defender is providing daily updates on the landmark trial pitting Fluoride Action Network against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The trial started Feb. 1. To read previous coverage, click here.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) risk assessor admitted fluoride is neurotoxic at relatively low levels and the agency’s key expert witness on fluoride’s neurotoxicity conceded flaws in his own study as the landmark fluoride trial drew to a close on Tuesday.

Stanley Barone, Ph.D., a risk assessment scientist, was the EPA’s second and final in-person witness in nine days of testimony before federal Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco.

The trial began in 2020 but was put on hold pending the publication of the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) report informing the case. It resumed on Jan. 31.

Attorneys deposed Jesús Ibarluzea, Ph.D., lead author of the Spanish INMA cohort study, a key piece of EPA’s evidence, in November 2023. However, he withdrew from further participation in the trial, including not making himself available to testify via Zoom.

Instead, attorneys from both sides edited key parts of his deposition for the court and scheduled the video for public screening during the trial. EPA attorneys moved for the judge to watch it privately, in the interest of speeding along the trial process, they said.

The testimony was shared with The Defender and is reported below.

Food & Water Watch, Fluoride Action Network (FAN), Moms Against Fluoridation and other advocacy groups, mothers and children sued the EPA in 2017 after the agency denied a petition to end water fluoridation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

It is now up to Judge Chen to decide if the EPA should be required to create a rule banning water fluoridation in the U.S.

“Because the regulatory agencies have failed to do their job for decades,” plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Connett told The Defender, “the court is now in the position of having to do it for them.”

“It’s not a job the court takes lightly,” he said. “It’s not a job the court wanted to do, but I think it’s a job the court is prepared to do.”

Chen’s decision could affect more than 200 million Americans who drink fluoridated water. The dental lobby and public health agencies for decades have promoted the practice as one of the 10 great achievements of the 20th century, claiming fluoridation improves dental health…