A major anti-fluoride lawsuit wrapped up this week. There’s nothing in the media yet, of course, but Science.org ran a skeptical story about the lawsuit last month headlined, “Does fluoride in drinking water lower IQ? Question looms large in court battle.”

This fluoride lawsuit is the first case to get to trial under a ‘new’ 2016 Toxic Substances Control Act provision that lets citizens ask courts to assess a chemical’s risk when regulatory agencies prove unreliable. So years back, the Flouride Action Network used the Act after the EPA denied its request to ban fluoridation, saying the request lacked a “scientifically defensible basis.”

This week they finally got to trial.

The case is kind of exciting. They found a smoking gun. On top of scads of published studies, the FAN folks also unearthed an unpublished reportdrafted by the federal government’s own National Toxicology Program that concluded it was “moderately confident” that drinking water with fluoride just slightly over federal limits was associated with lower IQs in children.

Then — I realize you’ll find this hard to believe — FAN found compelling evidence that CDC officials actively tried to suppress the Toxicology report’s publication. Remember, an attempt to conceal something is also admissible evidence of consciousness of guilt.

The FAN folks seem pretty confident that the real science, as opposed to The Science™,  shows that the tooth-hardening chemical is not, in fact, safe at any level. Which, if true, would mean they’ve been lying to us for a very long time for very questionable reasons. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have given this story a moment’s thought, I would’ve thought it was just more kooky, crunchy granola, Birkenstock-wearing conspiracy theories. But now, having had my face rudely shoved into the FDA and CDCs rotten, corrupt posterior over mask and vaccine “science,” nowadays it always seems safest to assume the conspiracy folks are right until the CDC proves otherwise.

A couple Florida counties have outright banned fluoride, one large county as recently as just a few days ago, which of course made liberals lose their science-loving minds. This inversion of traditional political positions is truly bizarre. Four years ago, I would’ve associated attempts to ban fluoride with tree-hugging liberals. Now … it’s suddenly conservatives. Remarkable.

The judge is now thinking about the case and all the evidence. We’ll find out what happens when he enters an order.

I guess … Progress?