This time last year I made a video promising that 2024 would be “one of the most important years in fluoridation history,” but particularly for the fluoride-free movement and for the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). I called it “The Perfect Storm” coming to end water fluoridation. I think we can all agree that 2024 lived up to those promises in a big way. As you can see from the Google data on searches for “fluoride,” together we’ve awoken the world to the dangers of water fluoridation on a scale never seen before.
As you know, none of this was accidental. What we witnessed was the culmination of over two decades of diligent work by FAN staff, volunteers, organizers, and professionals, as well as over two decades of passionate support from so many of you. We’ve reached the tipping point. Here’s what happened in 2024: The largest study ever conducted on the effectiveness of fluoridation found essentially no reduction in tooth decay, no reductions in social inequalities, no reductions in missing teeth, and a net economic loss from the practice.
The first government-funded study looking at pregnant women living in a U.S. fluoridated community was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It found a doubling of neurobehavioral problems for children born to mothers exposed to higher fluoride levels in optimally fluoridated Los Angeles, CA
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) published their systematic review after 8-years, finding a “large body” of evidence that fluoride exposure is “consistently associated with lower IQ in children.”
After our 7-year-long legal battle in federal court against the EPA over the neurotoxicity of fluoridation, the court ruled that there is “substantial and scientifically credible evidence” establishing that water fluoridation “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children.” The ruling requires the EPA to take regulatory action to eliminate this risk.
The legal victory brought unprecedented media attention to FAN and to the dangers of water fluoridation. It made ending fluoridation a nationally discussed issue, gaining attention from decision makers at all levels of government, including the incoming presidential administration, and generated a wave of communities suspending or ending fluoridation that continues to grow with each day.
The Cochrane Collaboration published an updated assessment on the efficacy of water fluoridation. It found that effectiveness has declined to almost nothing over the past 50 years.
The Surgeon General of Florida–joined by other scientific and medical professionals–became the first state health official to hold a press conference calling for all communities to end fluoridation due to the health risks.
2025 will mark FAN’s 25th anniversary. It could very easily also mark one of the last years of water fluoridation globally. We’re that close. But the pro-fluoridation lobby isn’t giving up. Remarkably, they’re continuing to follow their old playbook of doubling down in support of the practice. We can’t let up now. Our victories this past year put us in a position where the future of fluoridation is now in our hands. Over the next four weeks, we’ll be providing detailed updates about the unprecedented media coverage we’ve received, the wave of communities responding to the court victory, feature new interviews with the FAN team, share new deposition video clips from the lawsuit, reveal more documents uncovered with the Freedom of Information Act, share exciting state legislative updates, and much more. Of course, we’ll also be sharing what’s to come in 2025. Please stay tuned, because I think you’ll find the content we share to be incredibly informative and useful.