GENEVA (AP) — Swiss prosecutors said a right-to-die activist was released Monday after more than two months in police custody over the reported first use of a so-called “suicide capsule,” after they ruled out the possibility of an intentional homicide.
Florian Willet, head of advocacy group The Last Resort, was released by authorities in the northern Schaffhausen region, where a 64-year-old U.S. woman in late September was said to be the first user of the Sarco suicide capsule, a sealed chamber that releases gas at the press of a button.
Authorities detained four people, but initially only released three of them — holding Willet on suspicion that the woman, who was not identified, might not have committed suicide but could have been killed.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. The Swiss government refers queries about suicide prevention to a group called “Dargebotene Hand,” or The Offered Hand.
A statement Monday from prosecutors said a criminal case was opened on Sept. 23, the day of the woman’s death, for suspected “inciting and abetting suicide” and a “strong suspicion of the commission of an intentional homicide.”
Although an autopsy report from experts in neighboring Zurich was not yet available, investigators no longer suspect intentional homicide, though there is “strong suspicion of the crime of inciting and abetting suicide," the statement said.
The statement said the suspect was released from custody though it didn't identify the suspect by name. Willet previously has spoken repeatedly to The Associated Press before his arrest and his colleagues have spoken out publicly in his defense in hopes of securing his release.
Prosecutors gave no further details, including whether the suspect was released conditionally and faced a continued criminal investigation over suspected incitement of suicide.
Calls by The AP to Willet’s mobile phone were not immediately answered.
Sarco developer Philip Nitschke of Exit International, a right-to-die group affiliated with The Last Resort, has said the allegations that the woman might have been strangled were “absurd. Nitschke said he watched by video during the woman’s death, in a wood in the Schaffhausen region near the German border, and that the device worked as planned.
The Sarco was designed to allow a person sitting in its reclining seat to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall unconscious and die by suffocation in a few minutes.
Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive,” says a government website.
Switzerland is among the only countries where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives and has a number of organizations that are dedicated to helping people kill themselves.
Nitschke has repeatedly said Exit International’s Swiss lawyers had advised that use of the capsule would be legal in Switzerland.
FILE - Philip Nitschke enters a 'suicide pod' known as 'The Sarco' in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, July 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahmad Seir, File)
FILE - A 'suicide pod' known as 'The Sarco' is seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, July 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahmad Seir, File)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide. Kennedy also said he’s assembling a task force to focus on the issue.
Also on Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is reviewing “new scientific information" on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water. The EPA has primary authority to set the maximum level of fluoridation in public water systems.
Kennedy told The Associated Press of his plans after a news conference with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in Salt Lake City.
Kennedy can’t order communities to stop fluoridation, but he can tell the CDC to stop recommending it and work with the EPA to change the allowed amount.
Utah last month became the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, pushing past opposition from dentists and national health organizations who warned the move would lead to medical problems that disproportionately affect low-income communities.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation barring cities and communities from deciding whether to add the cavity-preventing mineral to their water systems. Water systems across the state must shut down their fluoridation systems by May 7.
Kennedy praised Utah for emerging as “the leader in making America healthy again.” He was flanked by Utah legislative leaders and the sponsor of the state’s fluoride law.
“I’m very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will,” he said.
Kennedy oversees the CDC, whose recommendations are widely followed but not mandatory. State and local governments decide whether to add fluoride to water and, if so, how much — as long as it doesn’t exceed a maximum set by the EPA, which is currently 4 milligrams per liter.
Zeldin said his agency was launching a renewed examination of scientific studies on the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water to help inform any changes to the national standards.
“When this evaluation is completed, we will have an updated foundational scientific evaluation that will inform the agency’s future steps,” Zeldin said. “Secretary Kennedy has long been at the forefront of this issue. His advocacy was instrumental in our decision to review fluoride exposure risks, and we are committed to working alongside him, utilizing sound science as we advance our mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the CDC. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and in 1962 set guidelines for how much should be added to water.
Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has called fluoride a “dangerous neurotoxin” and said it has been associated with arthritis, bone breaks and thyroid disease. Some studies have suggested such links might exist, usually at higher-than-recommended fluoride levels, though some reviewers have questioned the quality of available evidence and said no definitive conclusions can be drawn.
In November, just days before the presidential election, Kennedy declared that Donald Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day as president. That didn't happen, but Trump later picked Kennedy to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he has been expected to take some kind of action. Meanwhile, some localities have gone ahead and decisions whether to keep fluoridating water.
Related to all this: A massive round of staffing cuts last week across federal agencies included elimination of the CDC's 20-person Division of Oral Health. That office managed grants to local agencies to improve dental health and, in come cases, encourage fluoridation.
Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main one for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water was long considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
About one-third of community water systems — 17,000 out of 51,000 across the U.S. — serving more than 60% of the population fluoridated their water, according to a 2022 CDC analysis. The agency currently recommends 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.
But over time, studies have documented potential problems. Too much fluoride has been associated with streaking or spots on teeth. Studies also have traced a link between excess fluoride and brain development.
A report last year by the federal government’s National Toxicology Program, which summarized studies conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico, concluded that drinking water with more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter — more than twice the recommended level in the U.S. — was associated with lower IQs in kids.
Utah Oral Health Coalition chairperson Lorna Koci said Monday that she hopes other states push back against the removal of fluoride and that Kennedy’s visit to celebrate her state's fluoride ban underscores the political motivations of those who support it.
She predicted children will have more cavities as a result and said backers of the fluoride legislation in Utah spread false information that raised doubts about its effectiveness. Opponents of the law warned it would disproportionately affect low-income residents who may rely on public drinking water containing fluoride as their only source of preventative dental care.
“This seems to be less about fluoride and more about power,” Koci said.
Stobbe reported from New York. Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed reporting,
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, arrives at University of Utah to discuss Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear in Salt Lake City with the EPA administrator and state lawmakers to talk about Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear in Salt Lake City with the EPA administrator and state lawmakers to talk about Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. exits a bus as he visits University of Utah to discuss Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear in Salt Lake City with the EPA administrator and state lawmakers to talk about Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits University of Utah to discuss Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits University of Utah to discuss Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear in Salt Lake City with the EPA administrator and state lawmakers to talk about Utah's new fluoride ban and food additives legislation, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
