Urge the EPA to Use Peer-reviewed, Scientifically Tested Studies for Latest Review Process |
Dear Doctor,
In response to concerns about fluoride in drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing a new toxicity assessment to review scientific information on the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water. They will be reviewing studies about dental fluorosis and neurocognition in their assessment. Their conclusion can be consequential in their determination of the safe level of fluoride in drinking water. Significant reductions below the current optimal level would effectively end community water fluoridation in the United States and may cost taxpayers millions in water filtration costs. Upon ADA’s initial review, the EPA’s preliminary toxicity assessment plan and literature review has overlooked some of the objective, evidence-based, peer-reviewed, valid and reproducible research on IQ and neurocognition and is including biased, mischaracterized studies that use flawed datasets that do not stand-up to scientific rigor.
We need to tell this administration that the oral health community trusts the long-standing comprehensive body of peer-reviewed research demonstrating optimal levels of fluoride in Americans’ water are safe, beneficial, and necessary in the United States. We need to encourage the EPA to scrutinize research and exclude biased and faulty literature before it completes its assessment on the current fluoridation levels in the US. The ADA is providing detailed feedback to the EPA and encourages its members to speak up for science.
Please take action and email the EPA today on the importance of community water fluoridation in protecting your patients’ health and urge them to use gold standard studies in their review. We must not let the EPA’s action overrule our state and local governments’ ability to fluoridate their water at the optimal levels.
Thank you for your dedication to protecting oral health in this country.
Steps on How to Contact the EPA: All comments must be submitted within the 30-day review by February 27, 2026. Please copy the sample comments below then click the Comment Now button. This will take you to the Regulation.gov site pictured here: |
Then click the comment button. Please paste the sample comments into the comment section To add your input into the federal record, take a moment to personalize the provided text. |
Next follow the steps on the website to submit your comments. |
This should only take a few minutes. Sample comments below can help protect fluoride. Dear EPA Administrator Zeldin:
The EPA’s plans to review the literature on fluoride health effects must be consistent with Gold Standard Science that incorporates the agency’s peer-reviewed methods as per its mission. I urge the agency to include reputable, well-respected peers who have objective research on the subject of neurocognition and fluoride exposure.
As a dentist following over 80 years of trusted science, I urge the EPA to enlist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to peer review its assessment plan and systematic review prior to finalization. NASEM is considered the gold standard for peer review.
A peer review by NASEM will help ensure future regulatory decisions about community water fluoridation are based on reproducible, objective and high-quality evidence. If the EPA wishes to promote the best available, unbiased, peer-reviewed studies through broad literature searches in scientific databases, it must remove the biased studies included in this review and add numerous, better-conducted studies from the last few years.
The collaboration with subject matter experts must exclude those who bring bias and erroneous research to the table. The EPA’s latest toxicity assessment must gather feedback from researchers who are well-established and trusted within the scientific community as water fluoridation experts and those producing studies that stand up to peer review and replication. Please exclude those studies from non-peer reviewed outlets that are not backed by the overwhelming majority within the scientific community.
EPA should review the scientific information and include only the best available scientific literature examining the safety of fluoride in drinking water. The American Dental Association (ADA) also advocates providing access to independent peer reviewers and recommends excluding the NTP Monograph on Fluoride and Neurocognition which clearly states that it does not apply to water fluoridation at 0.7 mg/L as practiced in the US and Canada. The NTP report only found an association (not causation) with fluoride levels greater than 1.5 mg/L as occurs naturally in countries like China and India. Utilizing studies from countries with similar fluoride levels as the US should be prioritized under scrutiny of safety of fluoride. In addition, the NTP authors clearly state that the majority of studies on which they based their conclusions (three-fourths) were of low-quality and high risk of bias, and that their findings should not be used to develop a dose-response analysis- which is precisely what EPA has stated they plan to do.
Given the politicized nature of this issue, I again urge EPA to enlist NASEM to peer review its assessment plan and systematic review prior to finalization.
The ADA has offered the opportunity to assist the EPA with its review of scientific information, which includes sharing the best available scientific literature examining the safety of fluoride in drinking water. I also encourage the EPA’s utilization of independent peer reviewers with intimate knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of the current fluoride literature. As a member of the ADA, I know that detailed recommendations have been submitted to the EPA. Please trust the dedication of oral health professionals focused on evidence-based guidance to provide further scientific review during the next phase of your assessment.
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Thank you,
Jim
Mr. James Schulz schulzj@ada.org
Senior Vice President, Government and Public Affairs GOV - COE Fed & State Advocacy
Work: (202) 789-5167 |
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