Robert F. Kennedy Jr says Trump will seek to remove fluoride from drinking water
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Donald Trump has said he would give Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr a prominent health role if he wins.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON - Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr said on Nov 2 that among the first acts of a second Trump administration would be to “advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water”, a stunning potential reversal of what is widely considered one of the most important public health interventions of the past century.
The statement, posted on social media, is among the more concrete pledges made by Mr Kennedy – a former independent presidential candidate who is now backing Donald Trump – in his capacity as a top adviser on Trump’s transition team.
It also raises the spectre of an all-out assault on public health expertise should Trump win the election, a prospect that has already caused significant alarm among experts across the medical and environmental fields.
As president, Trump would not have the power to order states and municipalities to remove fluoride from their water supplies; fluoridation is a matter of local control.
But a presidential pronouncement would inject the White House into a debate that stretches back to the 1950s, when conspiracy theories swirled around fluoridation, with critics claiming it was a communist plot to poison Americans’ brains.
More recently, however, there has been scientific debate around the practice, with some studies suggesting that excess exposure to fluoride – at levels twice the amount recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency – could harm infants’ developing brains.
But scientists say more research is needed to understand whether lower exposure to fluoride has an effect.
The process of adding small amounts of fluoride to drinking water, or fluoridation, began about 80 years ago. A majority of Americans today live where water systems are fluoridated, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which lists fluoridation as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.
The American Dental Association has said that water fluoridation reduces tooth decay by at least 25 per cent.
“Seventy years of research, thousands of studies and the experience of more than 210 million Americans tell us that water fluoridation is effective in preventing cavities and is safe for children and adults,” the association states on its website.
Trump has repeatedly said in recent public appearances that he would let Mr Kennedy “go wild” on issues of health
Ms Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement on Nov 2: “While President Trump has received a variety of policy ideas, he is focused on Tuesday’s (Nov 5) election.” NYTIMES
