ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP- Eleven unions representing more than 7,000 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency are calling for a national moratorium on programs to add fluoride to drinking water, citing what they call a possible cancer risk.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, the unions say the agency should act even before a committee of the National Academy of Sciences completes a report on the issue early next year.

J. William Hirzy, an EPA scientist and vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Local 280, said Johnson should act now in light of allegations that a Harvard University dentistry professor downplayed research showing an increased risk of bone cancer for boys who drink fluoridated tap water.

Harvard said in June it is investigating the allegations against Chester Douglass, who heads the school’s Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology.

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