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The city of Pasco, Washington, became one of the largest cities to end water fluoridation since September 2024, when a federal judge ruled that fluoridated water poses an “unreasonable risk” to children.
City officials in November 2025 voted 4-2 to end the practice.
Pasco, which has a population of about 80,000, is one of at least seven city councils in the state to debate water fluoridation.
Before voting on the issue, the city held a public debate. According to the city’s website, the debate attracted “the highest level of participation for any public input campaign in recent City history.”
“The more people know about fluoridation, the more they’re opposed to it,” Fluoride Action Network (FAN) board member Rick North told The Defender. City by city, they’re finding out, and more and more city councils are voting accordingly.”
Pasco now joins 80 other communities, including two states — Utah and Florida — and several counties that have ended fluoridation since U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s landmark ruling in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Citing the lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pasco city council members declared that fluoridation takes away our right of informed consent to take any drugs, North said. As one council member said, “People should make their own healthcare decisions.”
Public controversy continues to grow over the issue as new research published in top journals continues to link fluoride exposure — including at current U.S. fluoridation levels — to neurodevelopmental issues in children.
President Donald Trump, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary have all publicly raised concerns about the danger water fluoridation poses to children’s health.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency would review the science on the issue.
However, the U.S. Department of Justice continues to pursue its appeal in the EPA case — even though in its appeal filing, the agency didn’t challenge the court’s finding that current fluoridation levels pose an “unreasonable risk” of neurodevelopmental harm to children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to recommend the practice.
Nearly 30 million fewer people drinking fluoridated water since 2023
The CDC typically updates its statistics on water fluoridation on a biannual basis. However, the agency hasn’t updated the figures since 2022.
Since then, communities serving water to about 29.5 million people have ended, suspended or prevented water fluoridation, according to FAN.
Only two cities — Buffalo and Albany, both in New York — are known to have begun adding fluoride to their water. FAN independently tracks water fluoridation statistics.
FAN recently released updated statistics on national changes to water fluoridation practices between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2025.
The CDC’s 2022 figures, commonly cited in the media, reported that 209.1 million people, or 62.8% of the U.S. population, drink fluoridated water.
However, according to FAN’s updated statistics, today that number is only 191.5 million, or 55.5% of the population, now that cities are discontinuing the practice.
FAN said it has worked for 25 years with citizen campaigners, community organizers, coalition partners and decision-makers to end fluoridation, Executive Director Stuart Cooper told The Defender.
“We’re definitely witnessing a groundswell of support for fluoride-free water,” Cooper said. “We’re now within striking distance of the majority of U.S. residents consuming non-fluoridated water.”
“This is a crushing defeat for the American Dental Association, which continues to protect the fluoride industry that makes up their corporate sponsors rather than protecting the health of our children.”
Related articles in The Defender
- That Fluoride Added to Your Town Water to ‘Prevent Cavities?’ The EPA Says It’s Hazardous Waste
- Utah Becomes First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water
- EPA Accused of Protecting Itself, Not Public Health, as Water Fluoridation Battle Heats Up
- Breaking: Fluoride in Water Poses ‘Unreasonable Risk’ to Children, Federal Judge Rules
