Largely unseen, a lawsuit that aims to outlaw public water fluoridation is moving forward in the federal District Court of Northern California. In earthquake-prone California, this suit could eventually shake a pillar of U.S. public health policy.

Hundreds of studies showing fluoride’s detrimental effects on the human brain constitute the heart of the lawsuit. They are like the tremors that foreshadow a future quake, signs that a bigger shift is coming. Amid these clear warning signs of a flawed policy with large impacts, the news media are largely silent. Meanwhile, virtually every American ingests fluoride via the water supply or foods prepared with fluoridated water.

What constitutes the “critical mass” for a news story worthy of national attention? Presumably it is the heft of newsworthiness weighed on the scale of editorial judgment. Why, then, does the amply documented evidence of public water fluoridation’s adverse effects come up light on the editorial scale? What prevents it from being the ongoing story of lackadaisical science and violation of the public trust that it has been for nearly 70 years?