Trump HHS pick RFK wants to remove fluoride in drinking water
(FOX 9) - President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department is raising concerns in the dental community over his push to rid the country’s public water supply of fluoride, a mineral which has for decades been linked to cavity prevention.
Fluoride concerns
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental attorney and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, posted on X on Nov. 2 that the incoming Trump administration "will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water."
Kennedy, who dropped his own independent presidential bid and endorsed Trump in August, claimed that fluoride causes cancer, arthritis and even lowers IQ.
But dentists said decades of data show the mineral is overwhelmingly safe and effective.
"He’s not following the science. The science is concrete. It’s not something that was just discovered yesterday," said Dr. Scott Shamblott, who owns Shamblott Family Dentistry in Hopkins.
He said the dental health of people nationwide would dramatically worsen without fluoride in the public water supply.
"We’d be looking at more people that have infections, more people that need root canals and crowns and extractions for teeth that got beyond the point that we could save," he said. "It would be ugly."
Shamblott said fluoride can adversely affect teeth but only in quantities much higher than what is found in public water.
Minnesota started mandating fluoride in public water in 1970.
But Kennedy is not the only person skeptical of fluoride.
In September, a federal judge in California found that the mineral "poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children." The judge, however, pointed out that he could not determine with certainty whether fluoride was harmful to public health. Still, he ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the mineral.
If confirmed, it is unclear whether Kennedy would have the authority to rid the nation’s water supply of fluoride. State and local governments decide whether to add fluoride to their water supply.