It’s OK to agree with RFK Jr. about fluoride

For generations, some have questioned the safety of ingesting drinking water containing fluoride. They’ve been mocked, called tin foil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists and worse. Even Stanley Kubrick’s classic “Dr. Strangelove” could not resist having the deranged Gen. Jack D. Ripper expound “Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face!”

Now, however, thanks to a federal court ruling, the question of whether adding fluoridation chemicals to drinking water is safe has finally been resolved. It’s not safe. Full stop. Gone are the battles as to whether fluoride is one of the greatest health achievements of the 20th century or whether it’s dangerous, corrosive, toxic, unpurified industrial waste that often includes trace amounts of lead, arsenic and other heavy metals.

On Sept. 24, 2024, Judge Edward M. Chen — a respected, Barack Obama-appointed senior federal court judge for the U.S. District Court in Northern California — ruled that water fluoridation at the level currently considered optimal in the United States poses an unreasonable risk to the health of children. The litigation that resulted in this finding was brought by various citizen groups against the Environmental Protection Agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act and spanned seven years of hard-fought motion practice, depositions and extensive trial dates.

Judge Chen’s detailed ruling runs 80 pages and considers all the available peer-reviewed studies on the subject as well as testimony from many expert witnesses produced by both sides. It unambiguously concludes that: “Specifically, the Court finds that fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter — the level presently considered ‘optimal’ in the United States — poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children.”

Judge Chen then ordered the EPA to commence rulemaking proceedings to address this risk to our children, which could well result in a ban on fluoridation throughout the United States. He specifically noted that, “One thing the EPA cannot do, however, in the face of this Court’s ruling, is to ignore that risk.”

I believe this ruling suggests the science is now clear: Fluoridating water is an anachronistic practice that needs to end. In fact, as a result of this ruling, numerous municipalities across the country have, in advance of any EPA rulemaking, taken the responsible step and ceased to fluoridate their water. Parents, concerned about the risk to their children, especially newborns, are now contacting their local and state elected officials to demand that fluoridation stop at once. (Fluoride has never been added to the water in any Berkshire County community.) Parents can still, of course, have their children use toothpaste with fluoride if they wish — just follow the mandatory poison control label that tells you not to let your children swallow it and to call poison control if they do.

Sadly, however, the issue of fluoridating water now seems to have become politicized.

Apparently, if President Donald Trump and his pick for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. say that they want to end water fluoridation (which they do), that position must de facto be unfounded. And, incredibly, some articles discussing their position never mention that the Trump/Kennedy position on fluoride has been validated by a federal court judge following a lengthy trial. This glaring omission feeds right into the perception that Trump and Kennedy are acting against the best science and doesn’t give parents, who have been told for years that fluoride is harmless and entirely beneficial, the key information about the judicial ruling — now the law of the land — that they need to know to decide how best to protect their children.

I recognize that this might be hard for some to accept, but Trump and Kennedy are justified in relying on the science and the thorough, learned and highly detailed ruling by an experienced jurist appointed by a Democratic president.

Please don’t be put off by so-called dental experts who predict that everyone’s teeth will rot if fluoride is removed. The prestigious, independent Cochrane Review concluded in October 2024, that, after a thorough review of available studies, contemporary evidence does not show a reduction in cavities of more than 4 percent, and there might be no benefit at all. When the benefit is so inconsequential, and knowing the significant risk of drinking fluoridated water, why would anyone allow their children to drink it?

It’s time for people to take a giant step back and a deep breath and recognize that their long-held belief that drinking fluoridated water is beneficial and not harmful is not supported by the science and is dangerous to their children and grandchildren. It’s time to join most of Western Europe, Japan and other regions that do not fluoridate water without any deterioration of dental health. It’s time to stop listening to the so-called “experts” who have been touting fluoride for years and are likely too embarrassed to admit they were wrong. And it’s time to do this even if they find it distasteful to agree with Trump and Kennedy about something.

I know that for some this might be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Our children’s health depends on it.