Sharyl Attkisson - Fluoride concerns.

From homeschooling to home-cooked meals, Kentucky mom Kari Ashauer has a strong influence over what's going into her kids' minds and bodies.But despite her best efforts, there's something flowing into her home over which she has no control: mandatory fluoride in the tap water.

Kari Ashauer: I don't get to choose what's in my water. I have no control over that, especially since it's a state mandate that they have to put it in.

Kentucky is one of 13 states that require water districts to add fluoride. Across the U.S., about 73 percent of people served by community water systems have fluoridated water.

Kari Ashauer: It's been linked to ADHD, IQ, development... unless you install a whole house filter, there’s no way to get it out.

Ashauer is supporting a bill that would allow individual water districts in Kentucky to decide whether or not to fluoridate.

Lisa Fletcher: How important is it for you to have a voice in what your kids are consuming?

Kari Ashauer: If we can't advocate for our kids, then why are we here?

Since 1951, Kentucky, like many states around that time, started requiring fluoride to be added to all tap water.

Fluoride was a generally unwanted byproduct of aluminum, fertilizer, and iron ore manufacturing until the industry promoted the idea of adding it to water supplies. Today, selling fluoride used in water is a $1.2 billion-a-year global business.

And one that has rarely been without controversy—starting in the 1950s with concerns ranging from fluoride being a communist plot to undermine public health, to it being a form of mandatory medication.

Now, there is a modern and growing body of research suggesting that fluoride may be linked to health issues like bone fractures, joint problems, and neurological issues—especially in children.

Dr. Jack Kall: Fluoride is a neurotoxin. In a child, that is extremely critical to consider because the brain is being developed.

Doctor Jack Kall is a dentist in Louisville, Kentucky, and part of a group of more than 800 dentists, physicians, and researchers questioning the safety of fluoride in the water.

Dr. Jack Kall: Why take a chance with that? We can repair the tooth. You can't repair the brain.

Kall says the 50-plus-year-old science used to support fluoridating water is out of step with the latest research.

Lisa Fletcher: Everybody can find science to fit their narrative.

Dr. Jack Kall: Yes.

Lisa Fletcher: What makes the science behind fluoride being dangerous, to you, more reliable and more trustworthy?

Dr. Jack Kall: These recent studies in the last seven or eight years, they've been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Typically, studies that are funded that way are done at very high-quality research facilities and have been thoroughly vetted just to approve the funding before the actual research started. So that adds a level of confidence.

But not for everyone.

Dr. Stephen Robertson: I think when you get right down to it, the facts are on the side of fluoridation.

Doctor Stephen Robertson is the Executive Director of the Kentucky Dental Association.

Dr. Stephen Robertson: The science backs the effects that the fluoridation is having and supports that this is one of the top 10 public health initiatives that we've had in America.

Lisa Fletcher: How do you explain Kentucky being in the bottom eight states for oral health and tooth decay, yet being the number one fluoridated state in America?

Dr. Stephen Robertson: As we've seen an increase in processed foods and changes in diet and the increase in sugar intake and the high increase in soda with the acidic drinks and the high sugar content, there's going to be an increase in decay.

Lisa Fletcher: There are doctors and researchers that we've spoken to who have said that when they try to have a conversation about the facts of fluoridation, there's a deflection to sugar or to diet, rather than going back and forth about the risks and rewards of fluoridation.

Dr. Stephen Robertson: Well, I think that's because the science is strongly on our side. The fluoride is doing what it can to help. It has to be the diet and the sugar, and that's why people keep coming back to that.

In the last six months, communities in almost a dozen states have voted to keep fluoride out of their tap water. Since 2010, it’s been removed from more than 150 towns or counties.

Lisa Fletcher: Just this week, a California court ruled in support of a ban on adding fluoride to drinking water across the country. The court found evidence that fluoride poses an 'unreasonable risk' to health, particularly for children. The Environmental Protection Agency could challenge that ruling, which could send the case to the Supreme Court.

Lawmakers in some states aren’t waiting for the courts

William Lawrence: It’s time to update this law. Let's take this out.

Republican Kentucky state lawmaker William Lawrence is co-sponsoring the bipartisan bill that would take fluoridation out of the hands of state government and give local water districts control.

William Lawrence: If we could get this bill passed, you, the citizen, could go to your water district and say, "Hey, we want to stop this. We want this out of our water." You get enough people behind it, majority rules.

And for moms like Kari Ashauer, she's counting on it.

Kari Ashauer: As a mom, as a voting citizen, I will take that into account when I go to the polls.

For Full Measure, I’m Lisa Fletcher, in Berry, Kentucky.

https://fullmeasure.news/newest-videos/fluoride-09-26-2024