With EPA delay tactics stopped, a federal judge moves ahead with trial that may end water fluoridation in America
At a hearing on January 12th, 2023, delays in a federal water fluoridation trial have come to a halt, as Judge Edward Chen denied the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s motion for another six-month delay that its attorney had sought. EPA is being sued by the educational non-profit Fluoride Action Network (FAN) and other health advocates for ignoring scientific evidence that water fluoridation is harmful to children’s brains. The latest and best science, FAN has argued, shows that water fluoridation poses an unacceptable risk to America’s children.
The elusive report that caused the delay
After a vigorous showdown in June 2020, the EPA sought a delay in the trial for an indefinite amount of time, waiting until the court receives a last, important piece of scientific evidence on how fluoridation affects children’s health. That final piece was a “state of the science” report on fluoridation and human health that was still being completed at that time by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The judge, wanting to extend all opportunities to the defendant to state its case, granted the request for delay. Judge Chen put a “stay” on the trial and everything was frozen in place for the next two years until May of 2022, when it appeared that the NTP report would finally be released.
Story of delay took a twist in May 2022
But May of 2022, is when the story of this trial takes a new twist, with the uncovering of internal governmental agency documents that reveal who gave secret orders causing the delay. The internal documents confirm that, by May 2022, the NTP report had had at least five peer reviews, was in final form and was scheduled to be released on May 18, 2022. However, the release of the NTP’s report did not happen, and, as many more months rolled by, the fluoridation trial remained “in abeyance.” The plaintiffs and their attorneys began to suspect that high level figures within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had secretly given orders to block release of the NTP report. If the court could not get its hands on the awaited report, it might hold the trial in abeyance for a long, long time. Was there even an attempt to keep the trial stalled and held in abeyance forever?
Suspicions of top-down orders confirmed
The plaintiffs’ suspicions turned out to be on target. Freedom of Information Act requests submitted on behalf of the plaintiffs in the trial to NTP, CDC and NIH uncovered some very telling internal government documents.
– On April 28, 2022, NTP’s Dr Mary Wolfe said in an e-mail to EPA’s Casey Hannan that NTP’s “analysis and conclusions are set.” It had reviewed all of CDC’s comments, and the report would be released in mid to late May. In fact, on May 11th, an e-mail from Dr Wolfe to EPA’s Hannan said that the NTP had “set May 18th as the release date for the publication of the monograph” and that it would be posted on the NTP web site, making it open to the public.
– Later the same day, CDC’s Dr Karen Hacker e-mailed to Wolfe that there was concern within the CDC about the NTP report and that it needed to have further review by NIH leadership, along with “inter-agency review” within the HHS, the vast public health agency that includes all of these powerful agencies.
– On May 12, EPA’s Hannan tells Wolfe “The May 18th release date for [the monograph] is almost certainly not going to happen”, saying that “OAHS and NIH OD are pretty clearly going to get more involved.” NIH OD refers to the director of the NIH, Lawrence Tabak. OAHS refers to the Office of the Assistant Health Services, namely R. L. Levine, the number two person at the HHS. The Public Health Service (PHS), which embodies the nine most powerful public agencies within the HHS, is headed by Levine; both Levine and Tabak were appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021.
– On June 3rd, an e-mail from two high officials at the CDC, Nicole Johnson and Jennifer Greaser said, “The latest we heard (yesterday) is that ASH [R. L.] Levine has put the report on hold until further notice.”
A secret collaborative effort to delay justice
So, according to these documents, the blockage of the release of the NTP report was caused by secret orders from top governmental offices, including Tabak, the NIH head, and R. L. Levine, the head of the Public Health Service and the number two person at HHS. Was this a scheme that aimed to obstruct justice and delay the trial indefinitely? If EPA’s conduct regarding water fluoridation is obstructing the truth, can’t we now conclude that these revelations also implicate the top officials at the CDC, the NIH and the HHS to be participants in the scandal? The PHS has recommended water fluoridation to America since 1962.
These uncovered documents were provided by the plaintiffs to Judge Chen. While not showing any outrage or indignation at the uncovered tactics, on January 12th Chen not only denied the EPA’s motion for a six-month delay, but also ordered both parties to prepare for a trial that will likely be scheduled at the earliest time available on his calendar, and that time is most likely the fall of 2023. The next hearing in the trial is now scheduled for April 12th, 2023.
Further, the May 2022 version of the NTP report, now obtained by the judge and provided to both parties in the lawsuit, will form the basis for final arguments about the health effects of water fluoridation, and there will be no waiting for any other more “final” version.
A negotiated agreement of the release of the May ‘22 report to the public
As for when or whether to order release of the May 2022 NTP report to the public, Judge Chen will no longer have to decide on that. In his court; on February 3rd, attorneys for both parties in the lawsuit met and negotiated a settlement on that question. The settlement, which the judge formalized by a court “stipulation” says that the long-suppressed NTP report on “state of the science” will be released to the public by no later than March 15th, 2023.
The Media’s role
So, finally, the general public can read up on the NTP report. Most people will not lay eyes on the report itself. It is probably lengthy and detailed. A 2003 version of fluoride’s “Toxicology Profile” is about 400 pages long with much technical detail. Few people will ever actually read such a report, and so most will only know what is conveyed by the media. The mainstream media may never discuss what the NTP report says, or what is happening in the fluoridation trial. If the media does provide some coverage, it may well do so with its usual pro-fluoridation slant.
Holistic dentists and natural health practitioners
know about the fluoride problem
But practitioners of biological dentistry and natural, holistic health and their patients will not be deceived by media propaganda. They know well that fluoride is something to be avoided in dental and medical treatments. Medical treatments include many dangerous drugs, such as Cipro and other fluoroquinolone anti-biotics. Such drugs inflict damage to the unwary victims that can be quick and severe.
As for fluoride added to the drinking water, the holistic practitioners and most of their patients know that that is a crazy, wrong-headed public policy. Many know the fact – very bizarre as it sounds – that the usual product used for water fluoridation is hazardous industrial wastes that are produced by phosphate fertilizer plants.
Many also know harm to many parts of the body that results from the accumulation of fluoride over time. Namely, there is dental fluorosis, a profound harm to teeth, and there is harm to kidneys, bones, connective tissue, the thyroid gland and pineal gland. And based on science published in recent decades and testified to in the June 2020 part of the trial, there is damage to children’s brains, with impacts on their behavior and ability to learn. Have American voters ever voted in favor of that for the children?
Freedom in America is at stake too
Water fluoridation is a public health mandate that violates our basic freedoms and there is no justification for it. It violates health freedom principles as it forces a (supposed) medical treatment on millions of people – 70% of American people are getting tap water that is fluoridated; many of them don’t want it and will go to some lengths to avoid it. If they were all informed about the harm being done by fluoride and the absence of benefits, none of them would want it. But, of course, there is a serious lack of truthful information going to the consumers, and so there is no informed consent for the people who are being forced to drink it. Virtually every person drinking, cooking and bathing with fluoridated water is being harmed by it to some extent, but most will never connect their dental fluorosis, aches, pains, arthritis, low energy, thyroid problems, accelerated aging and brain effects to fluoride because they don’t have the information that would allow them to do so. The onset of the symptoms is usually gradual, and not obviously connected to their unwise exposure to fluoride.
We advocates for health freedom and natural health will be following the fluoride trial as it goes along this year. We hope that freedom and truth will prevail.
Written by Leo Cashman, the executive director of DAMS, Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions, an educational non-profit (www.amalgam.org). He is also a co-founder of National Health Freedom Coalition and serves as a board member.
