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The Debate Over American Water, Explained: Why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wants to Ban Fluoride in Water

  • Conspiracy theorists have long advocated for removing fluoride from drinking water, a practice experts consider to be one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century.

  • 201 million Americans, or 63% of the population, had fluoride in their drinking water systems in 2022.

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The next debate in America won’t be over whether to elect Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. Instead, it’ll focus on something that on its surface looks quite innocuous: water.

Eyes set on fluoride. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former presidential candidate known for his anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, open the floodgates on the practice of adding fluoride to water earlier this month, just days before Donald Trump won the election. Public officials have been adding low levels of fluoride to watersince the mid-20th century after researchers found that the mineral reduced cavities

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy said in a post on X, referencing the day of the president-elect’s inauguration. He then proceeded to list fluoride’s purported impacts on health, including a supposed link between higher levels of exposure to fluoride and low IQ in kids.

In general, public health experts have pushed back against Kennedy’s claims. While they may not have made that much of an impact under different circumstances, the political scion is Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. As such, these positions carry more weight and could lead to widespread change.

What is fluoride? Fluoride is a natural mineral that found in water, soil, and certain foods. It’s been proven to strengthen teeth and prevent damage caused by bacteria in the mouth. As explained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when we eat, the bacteria in our mouths release acid, which can dissolve minerals on the surface of our teeth and lead to cavities.

“Protecting teeth requires consistent, low levels of fluoride in the mouth (in the saliva and on tooth surfaces),” the agency says on its website.

Besides being present in drinking water, fluoride is also included in dental products like toothpaste and mouth wash. It’s also available in pill form with a prescription.

History of fluoride in U.S. drinking water. Dentist Frederick McKay was the first person to discover that fluoride could prevent tooth decay in the early 1900s. At that point in history, dental health in the U.S. was a serious problem, according to Sherwood News. It even affected military recruitment because prospective soldiers couldn’t qualify over their bad teeth, which made them unable to chew hard military rations.

The public water system in Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first in the U.S. to add fluoride to its drinking water. As a result, it saw a dramatic decline in cavities in school children in the city compared to those in surrounding areas. The results in Grand Rapids eventually spurred widespread adoption of fluoride by other public water systems in the U.S.

In 2022, 209 million Americans received fluoridated drinking water, the CDC stated.

Questions rise over fluoride in water. While conspiracy theorists have long advocated against removing fluoride from drinking water, the issue has captured mainstream attention in recent months.

Back in August, a report from the National Institutes of Health found “with moderate confidence” that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended amount was linked to lower IQ in children. The federal government recommends that water systems have a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. Researchers pointed out that 0.6% of the U.S. population, or 1.9 million people, receive water from systems with levels of 1.5 milligrams o more.

Notably, as noted by the Associated Press, the report didn’t reach a conclusion on the risk of lower fluoride levels or the risk that higher levels might pose for adults.

Pushback. Not all the scientific community is behind the NIH’s report. For its part, the American Academy of Pediatrics questioned the validity of the report, pointing out that other reports have come to different conclusions. The academy continues to recommend the use of fluoride in water and other products like toothpaste.

Others have also said that the NIH’s report shouldn’t be used to make decisions on the future of fluoride in water because the studies it was based on include many communities outside the U.S.

The Trump factor. Overall, the debate is still raging, and it doesn’t seem to have a clear or fast end in the sight, especially with Trump’s incoming arrival. The president-elect has previously said he would put Kennedy in charge of health initiatives in his administration.

When it comes to fluoride in water, Trump seemed receptive to Kennedy’s idea to remove it from public drinking water systems, saying, “[it] sounds OK to me. You know it's possible.”

Image | Deborah L Carlson

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