Q&A on CommunityWater Fluoridation Dr. Aaron Burry, CDA’s CEO, a general dentist and dental public health specialist, answered questions in October 2024 about recent developments regarding community water fluoridation. Q Why has community water fluoridation (CWF) been in the news? Dr. Aaron Burry (AB): Water fluoridation has been debated for decades, but three recent events have brought this debate more strongly into the public consciousness: a U.S. legal case in September that we’ll discuss in more detail, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying that if Donald Trump was elected U.S. president in November, Kennedy would put a stop to CWF, and finally there was an updated Cochrane review in October indicating that CWF is less beneficial to oral health than it once was. The best scientific evidence currently available indicates that CWF is safe and effective. The increased public attention on CWF is driven by recent media coverage. Legal and political arguments have returned fluoride to the spotlight. Q Could you tell us more about the recent legal case in the United States? AB: In September 2024, a U.S. federal judge in California ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must respond to a citizens group’s petition about the safety of fluoride in drinking water. A change in U.S. legislation meant that as of 2016, U.S. citizen groups could petition the EPA to take action and respond to any risk they believed might exist. The ruling in September stems from a case that began in 2017 asking the court to assess whether the citizen group provided enough evidence to warrant an EPA response to its petition. The basis of the petition are studies that have contradictory findings: one set of studies indicating a potential association between even low levels of fluoride and decreased IQ levels in children, while the greater number of other studies that found no such association. Dr. Aaron Burry The best scientific evidence currently available indicates that community water fluoridation is safe and effective. 13 Issue 6 | 2024 | CDA atWork
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTE5MTI=