A federal judge in California has ruled that EPA wrongly
dismissed a petition to ban fluoridation of drinking water under
the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Food & Water
Watch, Inc. v. EPA, N.D. California, 12/21/2017. The
Petitioners sought a determination by EPA to ban the use of
fluoride in drinking water. EPA dismissed the petition
because it sought only to ban a single use of a chemical, finding
that Section 21 of TSCA requires that a Section 21 petition seek to
ban all uses of a chemical, rather than a single use. The
Court disagreed, holding that the new TSCA amendments allow
citizens to petition EPA to regulate single uses of
chemicals. The Court partially relied on the recent final
rule issued by the Trump EPA, the so-called framework rule on how
EPA will evaluate specific chemicals for possible regulation, in
which the Trump EPA provided that EPA has discretion to determine
which uses of a chemical to assess. The ruling finds that
"a natural
