WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that a Trump administration would on its first day “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”
Kennedy cited fluoride as being linked to several diseases, despite major medical associations supporting water fluoridation, which they say is safe and a public health benefit.
“President @realDonaldTrump and First Lady @MELANIATRUMP want to make America healthy again,” the former Democratic presidential candidate wrote in a message to X, tagging Michael Connett, a lawyer who has led a lawsuit against fluoridation of public drinking water.
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Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic with a history of conspiracy theorizing, is poised to play a key role in the health care policies of a future Trump administration. Since dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Trump, Kennedy has frequently appeared on the campaign trail to support the former president, and Trump said at a rally this week that if elected, Kennedy “is going to work on health and women’s health.”
Trump has embraced Kennedy. At an event in Arizona earlier this week, the former president said Kennedy “can do anything he wants” in a potential Trump administration.
“He really wants to get into the pesticides and the, you know, all these different things. I said, ‘He can do it. He can do anything he wants.’ He wants to look at the vaccines. He wants — everything. I think it’s great. I think it’s great,” Trump had said.
In late October, Trump said it was “such an honor to have Kennedy as an ally,” adding that he would let Kennedy “go wild on health.”
“I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on food. I’m going to let him go wild on medicine,” Trump had said.
Kennedy, a former independent presidential candidate, has praised widely debunked theories linking vaccines and autism. He also previously said he would support a nationwide ban on abortions after three months of pregnancy before quickly walking back his comments.
When asked for comment on Kennedy’s proposal, Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez vowed not to support the plan.
“While President Trump has received several policy proposals, he is focused on Tuesday’s election,” Alvarez said in a statement.
Major public health organizations such as the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention support water fluoridation, citing studies showing the mineral helps fight cavities. Health organizations also stress that the practice is safe.
“Fluoridation of water is an equitable and cost-effective way to ensure that prevention of dental disease reaches everyone in a community,” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ website.
The academy’s Campaign for Dental Health also says on its website that “there is no scientifically valid evidence to show that fluoride causes cancer, kidney disease or other conditions.”
Fluoride helps make teeth “stronger and more resistant to decay,” according to the CDC’s website, and drinking fluoridated water “reduces cavities by about 25 percent in children and adults.”
“Documented risks of fluoridation of public water are limited to dental fluorosis, a change in tooth enamel that is cosmetic in its most common form. Changes range from barely visible lacy white markings in milder cases to pitting of the teeth in the rare, severe form,” according to the CDC’s website, which notes that most dental fluorosis seen in the U.S. today “is of the mildest form.”
Likewise, the American Dental Association says on its website that water fluoridation is “safe and effective.”
“Over more than 70 years of research and practical experience, the overwhelming weight of credible scientific evidence has consistently indicated that fluoridation of public water supplies is safe,” according to a fact sheet on the association’s website.
Water fluoridation is not ubiquitous, and the CDC does not mandate fluoridation programs. Some cities have worked to end public water fluoridation programs, arguing that it should be up to them to decide whether to allow fluoride in public water supplies.