By Marianne Lincoln

I will admit, up front, I am celebrating. I am an individual that will vomit after a glass of fluoridated water. I was given a PET scan after cancer treatment. Some doctor didn’t look at my chart first, and did not tell me there was fluoride in the radioactive tracer injection for the scan. The arm that took that shot could not be lifted over my head for nearly six months. It was sore and stiff for that long. I know firsthand its safety is a bad joke.

In 2003, just two days after I had a major surgery, and still had an allergy tag from the hospital that said fluoride, the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department Board attempted to force all the water companies with over 500 customers in Pierce County, to add fluoride to their water. The person giving the community presentation gave all the standard promotional appeals: Local kids have bad teeth, fluoride protects teeth from cavities, fluoride is safe in water, fluoride is a low-cost miracle for dental health. I remember thrusting my arm into the air when she said there is no such thing as a fluoride allergy, the bright red allergy tag tight around my wrist. I embarrassed my sister-in-law next to me as I yelled, “Bullshit!” I apologized later, I was still on pain meds from the surgery.

None of that trope is actually true. Soon after, myself with 7 local water companies and cities, won the right, at the State Supreme Court, to make the decision locally not to fluoridate.

The State Supreme Court would not go so far as to say it was as bad as our 1139 pages of documentation and studies were showing. Teeth in the Bethel School District has already been shown to be better than the teeth of kids in Tacoma. And Tacoma kids were testing with lower scores in standardized tests that unfluoridated districts too. The Hazmat suits required to handle the additive should have been a clue. The spills that have occurred in some fluoridated cities that have been hushed up in the news are also scary. People die if they accidentally get too much. People get over fluoridated and unsightly, permanent brown spots show up on their tooth enamel.

So the news from the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. (NYSCOF) last night was a thrill, after the uphill battle against the marketing blitz we have been subjected to since 1947. Here is the letter:

After 7 years of pursuing legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the risk posed to the developing brain by the practice of water fluoridation, the United States District Court of the Northern District of California has just ruled on behalf of the Fluoride Action Network and the plaintiffs in our precedent-setting court case. A U.S. federal court has now deemed fluoridation an “unreasonable risk” to the health of children, and the EPA will be forced to regulate it as such. The decision is written very strongly in our favor, and we will share it in its entirety tomorrow. Below is an excerpt from the introduction of the ruling:

“The issue before this Court is whether the Plaintiffs have established by a preponderance of the evidence that the fluoridation of drinking water at levels typical in the United States poses an unreasonable risk of injury to health of the public within the meaning of Amended TSCA. For the reasons set forth below, the Court so finds. Specifically, the Court finds that fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter (“mg/L”) – the level presently considered “optimal” in the United States – poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children… the Court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury, a risk sufficient to require the EPA to engage with a regulatory response…One thing the EPA cannot do, however, in the face of this Court’s finding, is to ignore that risk.”

In this moment, I want to recognize attorney Michael Connett for pursuing this case and leading the effort every step of the way. He’s a true superhero to all of us here at FAN (Fluoride Action Network). Many other amazing team members were also involved in making this a reality and deserve great appreciation and thanks, including our co-plaintiffs and all of you who donated and spread the word about our case. Take a moment to celebrate this momentous occasion tonight, wherever you are. After 7 years, we all deserve it.