January 25, 2026 Marks 81 Years of Fluoridation Fraud

Respected, honest and accurate  fluoridation opponents were suppressed since the early days of fluoridation, according to Bette Hileman in Chemical & Engineering News (1988). It continues today

The new book, Fluoride Harm: Suppressed Science and Silenced Voices, documents some of the victims of retribution for opposing fluoridation. They followed the science, not the PR or endorsements. They are dentists, MDs, PhDs, Journalists, professional water engineers, a film maker and activists, including Erin Brockovich.

Dentist Hardy Limeback, BSc, PhD, was vilified, attacked, and threatened to be de-licensed for opposing fluoridation despite his being a published fluoride researcher, preventive dentistry university professor, and a hands-on-dentist unlike most fluoridation promoters.

Robert Dickson, MD, faced the same retribution for opposing fluoridation based on the science; he had to face a Canadian tribunal trial. He was exonerated on three of four charges – 1) fluoridation science 2) free speech and 3) practicing outside the scope of his medical training.  He was fined only for calling public health medical/dental officers liars despite having evidence to prove it.

Dentist Bill Osmunson, DDS, MPH promoted fluoridation until some of his patients urged him to read the literature. “It was like a punch in the gut,” he says.  Now, he dedicates his retirement to stopping water fluoridation. Osmunson is honored to be invited to sit on a National Fluoridation Commission of experts, including opponents and proponents, to review fluoridation science. Dr. Osmunson was instrumental in getting the National Toxicology Program to review fluoride neurotoxicity science  and for the FDA to restrict the use of ingestible unapproved fluoride drugs. Questioning authorities on fluoridation has taken a toll on his health, family, and practices.

Dentist David Kennedy, DDS, MIAOMT, author of the book, “How to Save Your Teeth: Toxic-Free Preventive Dentistry,” producer and director of the documentary “Fluoridegate: an American Tragedy,” past president of the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology says “By focusing on fluoridation instead of diet and dentist-access, organized dentistry allowed a national dental health crisis to occur on its watch and created a new one – dental fluorosis (fluoride overdose symptoms).”

Kathy Thiessen, PhD, a member of the US National Research Council’s panel studying fluoride’s toxic effects says, “The [2006] report considers fluoride to be an endocrine disrupter, and did not rule out a carcinogenic effect of fluoride.” EPA failed to act upon the 2006 NRC panel’s advice.

Thiessen writes, the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD), with input from the NYS Dept of Health, CDC and others tried to derail her career by writing to her boss suggesting that she was communicating misinformation about water fluoridation. She writes, “Ironically, a paper that ASTDD said I should use with respect to fluoride effectiveness contained essentially the same data as the paper that ASTDD objected to my using. Both papers used data from a 1986-1987 survey which, in fact, show essentially no difference in caries experience with respect to fluoride concentration in drinking water, but a very clear dose response for both prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis (Heller et al., 1997; Iida and Kumar, 2009). I just wasn’t supposed to point this out.” Her chapter is free here  https://childrenshealthdefense.org/community/suppressed-science-and-silenced-voices-book-political-corruption-water-fluoridation-chapter-26-thiessen/

Dr. J. William Hirzy Jr., PhD, retired EPA scientist and past President of the EPA Professionals Headquarters Union in Wash DC (NTEU280) which opposed fluoridation starting in 1985. Details here   He writes, “…scientists and technicians in eleven EPA unions, have been steadfast since the 1980s and ‘90s in our condemnation of politically determined fluoride contaminant levels and of the intentional pollution of drinking water with fluoridation water additives.” Dr. Hirzy says his chapter, “Malpractice: Civil Service Labor Union’s Opposition of Water Fluoridation,” is his “epistle to my countrymen and to the world on scientific integrity in organized federal labor. My final message is: Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

Australia’s Dr. Mark Diesendorf, Bsc, PhD’s chapter entitled, “My Struggle for a Serious Debate about Fluoridation,” reflects his sincere desire to have an open discourse between opponents and proponents on the legitimate science of fluoridation. Instead, he writes, “Throughout my campaign, proponents of fluoridation attempted to suppress and discredit me with dishonest arguments and misrepresentation." Two case studies are in his chapter; more are here.

His experience and research exposed techniques used by the establishment for suppressing scientific and public questioning of fluoridation and for damaging the credibility of anti-establishment experts including: censorship by scientific, medical, and dental journals; intimidating professionals who have concerns about fluoridation; characterizing falsely that opponents are cranks, right wing extremists, or alternative health ‘faddists.”

Florida Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD writes in the Forward of the book that he now recognizes some of his Harvard Medical School education verged on indoctrination, including reverence for water fluoridation. Studies from China, linking fluoride to lower IQ, ignited his concern as did Harvard’s Dr. Phyllis Mullenix’ PhD published peer-reviewed research linking fluoride to neurotoxic effects (Mullenix was fired for failing to bury this evidence) and Dr. Ashley Malin's, (University of Florida epidemiologist and psychologist) findings that “prenatal fluoride exposure was associated with increased neurobehavioral problems.”

Dr. Limeback writes a chapter about the attacks on Dr. Christine Till, PhD, clinical neuropsychologist, and Psychology Professor at York University in Canada. Dr. Till’s research, after intense scrutiny, was published in JAMA Pediatrics. Dr. Limeback writes, “The pandemonium that followed after Dr. Till and her team published their research was similar to the lead industry’s attacks on Dr. Herbert Needleman’s, MD, lead and IQ research. This was not a scholarly debate on the neurotoxicity of fluoride. Rather, this became an attack on epidemiology followed by scurrilous personal attacks on the scientists.”

Dr. Paul Connett, PhD writes “A particularly nasty example of this political effort to derail science was a letter sent to Dr. Christine Till’s University in an effort to have her reprimanded or dismissed for unprofessional conduct, when in reality her only offence was to publish top quality studies on fluoride’s neurotoxicity. This blatant form of intimidation should have no place in science.”

Activist, Erin Brockovich, author of several books including Superman is not coming: Our National Water Crisis and what we the people can do about it, writes “what I discovered is that there are more grants and government assistance programs to promote using our community drinking water systems as medical dispensaries than to make drinking water safe to consume Why is the fluoride advocates‘ lobby so large and well-funded?” Fluoride doesn’t belong in drinking water. Period, she writes. 

To Be Continued (when time allows)