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.
“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,