Richard Woychik, the clear-cut molecular geneticist, has announced with great fanfare. He is departing from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Woychik has been the director since 2020. He was recently appointed to a second five-year term, but he has decided to leave that post for a new federal appointment that fits perfectly with the Make America Healthy Again initiative.
In Woychik’s tenure at NIEHS, he has made a tremendous impact. He led the charge on two extremely controversial scientific reports that have unseen the course of environmental health research. A venerable 2016 National Institute of Health study found high doses of cellphone radiation did indeed cause cancer. It supported its claims using research done on male rats. That was the original story. This report’s final version, published in 2018, represented the same conclusion. The second report, completed in the spring of this year, concluded that increased concentrations of fluoride had an adverse effect on children’s IQ.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has launched a presidential campaign atop the Make America Healthy Again movement. He is now serving as U.S. health secretary and famously came to national attention by vociferously opposing vaccines. Kennedy’s anti-fluoridation crusade Kennedy’s leadership is entirely directed toward getting fluoride out of municipal water supplies. This is a huge decision, with far-reaching implications for the future of public health. Fluoride has long been considered one of the safest and most effective interventions to prevent tooth decay in kids. If this pilot project goes ahead as planned, that’s what will happen for approximately 25 million kids. The new cost of dealing with the impacts of extracting fluoride is $9.8 billion.
Woychik’s action comes as public health authorities face increasing criticism over the effects of their public health policies on society. After much serious deliberation, he made a surprising choice to leave NIEHS—a striking pivot on his career path. Now he is determined to do his part to help the Make America Healthy Again movement achieve its goals.
With Woychik’s departure, the NIEHS now finds itself looking to welcome a new director. This soon-to-be director, we’ve been led to believe, is a close personal friend of Vice President JD Vance. Now, six months into the first transition of the institute’s leadership, that moment is upon the institute. It seeks to advance the discipline of environmental health research, all while deftly traversing the tricky political terrain of public health advocacy.
Woychik’s leadership at NIEHS has been widely praised and roundly criticized. Supporters of his work consistently point to his passion for pushing the field further when it comes to making environmental health research more impactful. The reports he recently oversaw that produced so much controversy. Indeed, the recent policy catastrophes have raised grave doubts about the reliability and interpretation of important scientific findings used to inform policy decisions.
Woychik is getting ready to assume his new job. His contributions and actions at NIEHS will undoubtedly leave an indelible imprint on the future of public health and environmental safety conversations. The ongoing debate surrounding fluoride usage and cellphone radiation serves as a reminder of the broader challenges facing scientists and policymakers as they grapple with complex health issues.
