President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration may seek to remove fluoride from drinking water, according to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, who was tapped by Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, called fluoride an “industrial waste” and linked it to cancer and other diseases and disorders while campaigning for Trump.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease,” Kennedy said. wrote Nov 2 on X. Kennedy linked to a video from a lawyer who recently successfully sued The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to take further measures to regulate fluoride in drinking water.

Kennedy, who has long advocated ending water fluoridation, kept his promise after Trump’s election win. When asked before the election whether his administration would remove fluoride from drinking water, Trump said“Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”

Kennedy is an influential vaccine skeptic whose campaign of conspiracy theories earned PolitiFacts 2023”Lie of the year.”

Long-term research has shown that adding fluoride to American drinking water is a safe way to increase children’s oral health. Since 2015, the recommended level in the United States has been 0.7 milligrams per liter. Public health organizations, including American Dental Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and Centers for Disease Control and Preventionsupport the practice.

However, recent studies have shown possible links between fluoride and bone problems and children’s IQ, especially when fluoride is above the US recommended levels.

“There is evidence that fluoride exposure has been associated with the diseases (and) disorders that RFK listed, but with caveats,” said Ashley Malin, who is an assistant professor in the University of Florida’s epidemiology department and has studied fluoride’s effects on pregnant women.

Malin referred to studies showing that higher fluoride exposure, especially during pregnancy, is associated with reduced children’s IQ, and that prenatal exposure is also linked to reduced intellectual function and executive function. For high exposure during pregnancy, the studies showed symptoms associated with other neurobehavioral problems, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

But many of these studies took place in countries other than the US and looked at fluoride in drinking water at sometimes twice the US recommended level. Additionally, some of the other conditions Kennedy listed, such as a link with bone cancer, have less robust evidence and need more study.

“Aside from fluoride’s effects on neurodevelopment, I think there’s more we don’t know about the health effects of low-level fluoride exposure than we know, especially for adult health outcomes,” Malin said.

David Bellinger, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and professor in the Harvard School of Public Health’s environmental health department, said the risk-benefit calculation of added fluoride differs depending on whether typical levels of fluoride exposure cause health problems, or if problems occur only when recommended levels are exceeded.

“In toxicology, ‘the dose makes the poison’ is a long-standing principle,” he said. “So a general statement that fluoride is associated with diseases X, Y, and Z is not very useful unless the dose that might be responsible is specified.”

PolitiFact contacted Kennedy through his Children’s Health Defense organization but did not receive a response. The organization sued PolitiFact and Meta in connection with a fact-check in 2020. That lawsuit was dismissed by a federal court. The dismissal was upheld on appeal and the case awaits a possible appeal to the US Supreme Court.

What is fluoride and what are its benefits?

Fluoride is a mineral naturally occurring in soil, water and certain foods that help prevent tooth decay and cavities. It strengthens the tooth enamel that acid from bacteria, plaque and sugar can wear away.

Water fluoridation has been going on in the US since 1945.

The federal public health agency first recommended fluoridation of tap water in 1962, but the decision still rests with states and municipalities. About 72% of the US population, or about 209 million peoplehad access to fluoridated water by 2022, the CDC reported. Fluoride has also been added to oral care products such as toothpaste and mouthwash.

In 2015, US health authorities reduced the recommended amount of fluoride in drinking water to 0.7 milligrams per liter, says that a higher level was less necessary given other sources of fluoride, and that the lowered amount would still help protect teeth without coloring them.

Pediatric dentists note that application of fluoride with toothpaste and rinses is beneficial, but small amounts circulating in the body via water consumption help younger children who still have baby teeth, as it can benefit the developing permanent teeth.

The American Dental Association says that studies have shown that fluoride in community water systems prevents at least 25% of tooth decay in children and adults and that “for more than 75 years, the best scientific evidence has consistently shown that fluoridation is safe and effective.”

says the association on its website: “It is similar to fortifying other foods and drinks – for example, fortifying salt with iodine, milk with vitamin D, orange juice with calcium and bread with folic acid.”

According to the CDChealth experts and researchers from the United States and other countries have so far “not found convincing scientific evidence linking water fluoridation in the community with any potential adverse health effect or systemic disorder such as an increased risk of cancer, Down syndrome, heart disease, osteoporosis and bone fracture, immune system, low intelligence, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s disease or allergic reactions.”

The authority says that the risks of water fluoridation are limited to dental fluorosiswhich can alter tooth enamel and cause white spots, stains, lines or brown spots on the teeth when too much fluoride is consumed.

Do studies show that fluoride poses any other risks?

Some studies have said that excessive fluoride exposure, often at levels higher than the recommended US limit, can damage the developing brains of infants and toddlers and that higher levels of fluoride exposure during pregnancy were associated with decreases in children’s IQ.

A study published in May which Malin led with researchers at the University of Southern California and Indiana University suggested that fluoride exposure during pregnancy was linked to an increased risk of neurobehavioral problems in children and said more studies was “urgently needed to understand and mitigate the effects throughout the US population.”

Experts noted that prenatal fluoride exposure is most strongly linked to children’s IQ loss, and said the timing of fluoride consumption may need to be considered when making recommendations.

A federal review of dozens of studies published in August by the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program concluded that higher levels of fluoride exposure were linked to lower IQs in children. But the report was based primarily on studies in countries such as Canada, China, India, Iran, Mexico and Pakistan and involved fluoride levels at or above 1.5 milligrams per liter, twice the recommended US limit. The authors said more research is needed to understand whether lower exposures have any negative effects.

In the report, the researchers said they found no evidence that fluoride exposure adversely affected adults’ cognition.

Bellinger, of Harvard, pointed to the review as an example of how the amount of fluoride matters. He noted how researchers concluded that a very small percentage of people in the United States are exposed to levels that correlate with IQ loss.

“Second, the fact that there are now multiple routes of exposure to fluoride besides fluoridated water (toothpaste and other dental products, etc.) makes it really difficult to attribute any negative effect to the fluoride added to the water,” he wrote via e -mail. “It is the cumulative exposure from all sources that contributes to any adverse health effects.”

In September, a federal judge ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because of the potential risk that higher levels could affect children’s intellectual development.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen wrote that the court’s conclusion did not “certainly conclude that fluoridated water is harmful to public health,” and said it is unclear whether the amount of fluoride commonly added to water causes children’s IQ to drop. But he wrote that there was enough risk to warrant investigation and that the EPA must act to further regulate it. The ruling did not specify what action the agency would take, and the EPA is reviewing the decision.

After the ruling, the American Association of Pediatrics issued a statement that fluoride in drinking water is safe for children and said the policy is based on a robust foundation of evidence.

In addition to dental fluorosis, experts say fluoride exposure over many years above the US recommended amount can cause skeletal fluorosisa rare condition that causes weaker bones, stiffness and joint pain. Although the Public Health Service recommends a fluoride concentration of 0.7 milligrams per liter for municipal water systems, the EPA, under the Safe Drinking Water Act, sets enforceable standards for drinking water quality. Currently, to prevent skeletal fluorosis, the EPA requires that water systems not exceed 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.

Malin said she and her research team are investigating a potential link between fluoride and bone fractures. She said that while several studies have found high fluoride exposure associated with increased risk of bone fractures, and some have linked fluoride with thyroid disease, rigorous, US-based studies have not been done.

The concluded the CDC that recent research found no link between cancer risk and high levels of fluoride in drinking water.

American Cancer Society reviewed a possible link between water fluoridation and cancer risk. A spokesperson for the organization referred PolitiFact to its review and said it has no data showing a definitive answer.

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