RFK Jr. and Republicans Are Dismantling a Health Achievement: Fluoride in Water

Robert F. Kennedy, Trump’s health care chief, and conservative governors like Ron DeSantis are moving to ban fluoride in public water.

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Disregarding the advice of medical professionals, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Republicans are leading a charge against what has been heralded as one of the greatest public health achievements: fluoride in public water. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned fluoride from public water on Thursday, following Utah’s move to do the same in March. At least five other states are eyeing similar bans.

“Yes, use fluoride for your teeth, that’s fine, but forcing it in the water supply is basically forced medication on people,” DeSantis said. “They don’t have a choice, you’re taking that away from them.”

Kennedy said last month that he will tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending fluoridation — the process of adding fluoride to drinking water — which has been shown to prevent tooth decay. He also said he is making a task force to study fluoride in drinking water. The same day, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which sets the level of fluoride allowed in water, said it is reviewing “new scientific information” on the risks of fluoride. 

The HHS head said Utah is “the leader in making America healthy again,” after the state banned fluoride from public drinking water.

“I’m very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will,” he said.

Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and South Carolina are looking at fluoride bans as well. Portland, Oregon voted to ban fluoride in 1956, and more recently, in the past six years, at least 734 water systems have stopped fluoridating their water, according to the Associated Press. 

The Food and Drug Administration, which is part of HHS, announced this week that it’s beginning to remove ingestible fluoride supplements for children from shelves. “Ending the use of ingestible fluoride is long overdue,” Kennedy said in a press release.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that has had dramatic success in improving Americans’ dental health. In 1999, the CDC called fluoridation of drinking water one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the U.S. to fluoridate its drinking water in 1945. The findings from this experiment were a major breakthrough. For the first time, tooth decay was a preventable disease for the majority of people. Federal officials endorsed fluoridation in 1950. 

Cuts by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency eliminated the CDC’s Division of Oral Health, which issued guidelines on fluoridation. 

Local governments are looking at fluoride bans as well. In Florida, Miami-Dade County eyed such a resolution, which Mayor Daniella Levine Cava vetoed. 

“Water fluoridation is a safe, effective, and efficient way to maintain dental health in our county — and halting it could have long-lasting health consequences, especially for our most vulnerable families,” Levine Cava said in a statement. Commissioners voted to override her veto. 

Kennedy said in a November post on X that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water, something that has not happened yet. “On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” he wrote. “Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”

Fluoride can be a byproduct of industrial waste, but that is not its main definition. It is “naturally found in almost all soil and water and many rocks,” according to the CDC. Excessive amounts of fluoride are linked to skeletal fluorosis, a bone disease. Levels of fluoride much higher than what are in water supplies has been linked to hypothyroidism. 

Last year, a federal judge ordered the EPA to release more regulations on fluoride in drinking water, based on the risk that higher levels of fluoride could pose to children.

An HHS report found earlier last year “with moderate confidence” that levels of fluoride that are twice the recommended limit are linked to lower IQ in children. 

Kennedy’s plan to unilaterally tell the CDC to stop recommending fluoridation is unorthodox, experts say. 

“If you’re really serious about this, you don’t just come in and change it,” Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University, told the Associated Press. “You ask somebody like the National Academy of Sciences to do a study — and then you follow their recommendations.”

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