Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that a potential Trump White House would advise communities to remove fluoride from drinking water, which would overturn decades of public health guidance.
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral in water that oral physicians say can help to prevent cavities at the right doses. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes community water fluoridation – the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water to increase its concentration to optimal levels – as a “cornerstone strategy” to prevent cavities and one of the “10 great public health interventions of the 20th century.”
However, health agencies warn long-term ingestion of fluoride in excess doses carries various health risks, and critics like Kennedy have campaigned to end community water fluoridation. The Environmental Protection Agency has established a maximum allowable concentration of fluoride in public drinking water to prevent adverse health effects.
Kennedy declared the Trump White House would advise bringing that allowable concentration to zero on its first day in power.
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Former President Trump welcomes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage at a Turning Point Action campaign rally at the Gas South Arena on Oct. 23, 2024, in Duluth, Georgia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy posted on X. “Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” he claimed, adding that former President Trump and first lady Melania Trump “want to Make America Healthy Again.”
His statement provoked a wave of criticism on social media and renewed expert concerns about Kennedy – who has often clashed with the scientific consensus on vaccine safety – being placed in a position of authority over public health.
“While President Trump has received a variety of policy ideas, he is focused on Tuesday’s election,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in response to media questions about Kennedy’s statement.
Currently, more than 200 million Americans, or about 75% of the population, drink fluoridated water.
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A photo illustration of tap water in a clear glass drinking glass in West Reading, Pennsylvania, June 15, 2021. (Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and they continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city in the world to fluoridate its water supply.
Experts have long said that washing teeth with fluoride is not comparable to the risks posed by ingesting fluoride, with the latter potentially triggering harmful neurotoxic effects.
Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.
In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.
Then in September, a federal judge in California cited that study in an order requiring the EPA to further regulate fluoride because high levels pose “an unreasonable risk” to children.
“Indeed, EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is hazardous at some level of exposure,” U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said. “And ample evidence establishes that a mother’s exposure to fluoride during pregnancy is associated with IQ decrements in her offspring.”
Even so, the judge said the court “does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health.”
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits “The Story With Martha MacCallum” at Fox News Channel Studios on Sept. 25, 2024, in New York City. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. For five decades before that, the recommended upper range was 1.2 “after evidence increasingly established fluoride’s connection to adverse effects, including severe enamel fluorosis, risk of bone fracture, and potential skeletal fluorosis,” the judge wrote. Skeletal fluorosis is a potentially crippling disorder which causes weaker bones, stiffness and pain.
The World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5. Separately, the EPA has a longstanding requirement that water systems cannot have more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.
Kennedy has said that Trump has promised to give him “control” over the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), should the former president win the White House on Tuesday.
“I stand ready to help him rid the public health agencies of their pervasive conflicts and corruption and restore their tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science,” Kennedy told the New York Times in a statement.
The Trump campaign has said no decisions have been made about Cabinet-level positions or personnel, including the secretaries of HHS and USDA.
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“No formal decisions about Cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“President Trump will also establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses,” she added.
Trump told supporters at a rally on Saturday that he told Kennedy he “can work on food, you can work on anything you want,” except energy policy.
“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants kids, he wants everything,” Trump said.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan, Alex Nitzberg and the Associated Press contributed to this report.