Is fluoride in drinking water safe? RFK Jr. says fluoride ‘will disappear’ after election
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking aim at fluoride in public drinking water, a move scientists and dental health organizations have warned would prove disastrous for public health.
“Fluoride should not be in our water,” Kennedy said during a visit to Salt Lake City on Monday. He praised Utah for passing a first-ever ban on fluoride in public water, which will go into effect next month.
“I’m very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will come,” he said.
After the news conference, Kennedy told the Associated Press that he will tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending cities and states add fluoride to public water systems. Adding fluoride to water, a process called fluoridation, is not required by law.
Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said at the news conference that the agency would “expeditiously review” the safety of fluoride in public water systems.
Kennedy’s “advocacy was instrumental in our decision to review fluoride exposure risks,” Zeldin said in a statement.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
RFK Jr. stirs fluoride controversy
Kennedy has endorsed claims that fluoride is behind a host of health conditions, from ADHD and hypothyroidism to lowering IQ. Dentists and epidemiologists have hit back at those accusations as scientifically unproven, and have warned that removing fluoride from water systems could take a serious toll on public health.
Brett Kessler, president of the American Dental Association, called the claims that fluoride is harmful and unnecessary a “myth.”
“When government officials, like Secretary Kennedy, stand behind thecommentary of misinformation and distrust peer-reviewed research it is injurious to public health,” he said in a statement on Monday.
“Blindly calling for a ban on fluoridated water hurts people, costs money, and will ultimately harm our economy,” he said.
An eight-decade old practice
Cities and states have been adding fluoride to public water systems for eight decades, a practice the CDC praises as among the last century’s top 10 public health achievements.
While almost all bodies of water contain the naturally-occurring mineral at some level, scientists discovered in the 1930s that upping the amount could boost public dental health and prevent cavities. Currently, the CDC caps the legal level of fluoride in drinking water at 0.7 milligrams of the mineral per liter of water.
While scientists and health experts maintain that’s a safe level to reap the benefits of added fluoride with minimal risks, Kennedy and others have seized on some recent outlier studies that have stirred debate about the mineral.
A federal report released last August linked high levels of fluoride in some other countries – more than twice the maximum allowed in the U.S. – with lower IQs in children. The report didn’t find any adverse IQ effects on adults. It also examined the children’s total fluoride exposure, and did not “evaluate the health effects of fluoridated drinking water alone,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“While additional research to better understand the association and potential biologic mechanisms would be important, there’s nothing about the research that makes me concerned,” Charlotte Lewis, a member of the American Association of Pediatrics’ oral health section, said in a statement after the report was released.
