No more fluoride in the water? RFK Jr. wants that and Trump says ‘sounds good’

It has been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century: by adding a small amount of fluoride to the water supply, public health officials prevented millions of cavities, saved tens of billions of dollars in dental costs, and made children healthier. .

But in a post on X on Saturday, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he said one of his first actions as an official in the new Trump administration would be to “advise all US water utilities to remove fluoride from public water.” He went on to list several false statements about the effects of fluoride and linked to a video on a website founded by the famous anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist Del Bigtree.

Former President Donald Trump appeared to embrace the idea of ​​removing fluoride from the water supply. “No, I haven’t talked to him about it, but it sounds good to me,” Trump said Sunday in a phone interview with NBC. “You know, it’s possible.”

Experts were quick to criticize the promise of removing fluoride from the water. “Fluoride has been well tested. It reduces clearly and clearly, and is not associated with any clear evidence of the chronic diseases mentioned in that tweet,” says Dr. Paul Offit, a researcher and physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he is a scientologist. He makes up his own scientific facts and ignores the real facts,” Offit says.

Fluoride has clear benefits

The science is not clear – adding fluoride to the water supply has been effective in reducing the number of cavities in both children and adults. Fluoride works to restore minerals to teeth that have been lost when bacteria build up rapidly in the mouth, especially after eating sugary snacks.

More than a dozen recent studies from governments and academic institutions around the world have found that fluoride reduces tooth decay in children and adults by about 25%, according to the American Dental Association. It is especially beneficial for low-income families who may not have access to fluoride products, such as toothpaste and mouthwash. A study by the Colorado School of Public Health found that adding fluoride to water saved about $6.8 billion in dental costs in just one year.

In recent years, some studies have shown that high levels of fluoride can cause low IQ in children. A recent federal review found moderate evidence for an effect, but not at levels currently used in US drinking water. The ADA says the benefits of fluoridation continue to outweigh the potential risks.

Obvious differences

Dr. Amanda Stroud is a dentist who sees the effects of fluoride – and the lack of it – every day in her work as a dental director at a nonprofit health center in the western part of North Carolina. AppHealth helps children with fluoridated city water and others with non-fluoridated wells. The differences are stark, he says.

He says children who drink fluoridated water usually have good, strong teeth with no cavities. They can take smiling and eating without pain for granted, “which is exciting at that age,” Stroud says.

When children drink well water, it is a different story. He says: “They can rot every tooth. When they smile, they may break their teeth down to the gums. Their teeth look brown or stained.”

And it’s a painful condition that makes it difficult to wash and eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. “It hurts,” he says.

The first public health conspiracy theory

Despite the clear benefits, conspiracy theories about fluoride have existed for as long as running water, according to Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University.

“In a way, the fluoride in drinking water conspiracy theory is one of the public health conspiracy theories,” he says.

Fluoride was first introduced in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is also Trump’s last campaign stop before Election Day.

Adding fluoride to water quickly spread across the country once the benefits became clear in Grand Rapids.

But from the very beginning, wild theories about this chemical were abounding. He explains: “It worked as an almost perfect conspiracy theory. Fluoride was invisible, mandated by the government, and found in tap water, something everyone drank.

Dallek said the theory was particularly pushed in the 1960s by the John Birch Society, a far-right group of alleged communists who had infiltrated the government. The group believed that “any step of government intervention was a step towards a communist state,” he says. Therefore, they “glued fluoride as part of the communist plan.”

Reports about fluoride were widespread, but included ideas that it would somehow be used for mind control, or that it was a chemical weapon designed to poison humans. At first, at least, the ideas seemed to be getting some public attention.

Dallek says: “There were organizations that sprung up all over the country to stop fluoridation in drinking water.

In 1966, the government of Honolulu refused to add fluoride to the water. Fluoride is still not used in Hawaii and a 2015 report found that the state has the highest rate of tooth decay among children in the nation, and continues to have poor oral health. more than any other country.

It is mocked in the movies

But the movement did not catch on widely. Fluoride projects were openly mocked in movies like “Dr. Strangelove,” where General Jack Ripper starts a nuclear war because of the belief that fluoride was a communist project. In the 1980s, this issue largely disappeared. “Sometimes there were anti-fluoride campaigns that would pop up around the country,” Dallek says.

But in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, fluoride conspiracy theories have resurfaced, often pushed by people like Kennedy who also believe childhood vaccines cause autism and other diseases. Today, anti-vaccine advocates push the dangers of fluoride as well as those of vaccines and chemtrails, which are thought to be chemical trails left by commercial airliners to harm people and the environment.

Kennedy on Monday posted a video urging his supporters to vote for Trump so he was elected by a landslide. “Now, no one will be able to stop us if he gives me the power to clean up corruption in government agencies, especially our health institutions,” he said.

But Offit says Kennedy’s potential role in leading public health could be dangerous, especially for young people who benefit from fluoride and vaccines. Offit says: “Only children will suffer from his ignorance.