WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took another shot at fluoride, saying the chemical used to protect teeth is making Americans’stupider’ as he touted his proposal to reduce its use in the country’s drinking water.
“The more you get, the stupider you are, and we need smart kids and healthy kids in this country,” he remarked during a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump on April 30.
Kennedy complimented Utah for being the first state to restrict local governments from adding fluoride to public water systems, and stated that he is working to “change the federal fluoride regulations to change the recommendations.”
Scientists and dental health organizations have cautioned that Kennedy’s approach is detrimental to public health. The health secretary has stated that he will instruct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to discontinue advising that towns and states add fluoride to public water systems. The law does not require the addition of fluoride to water, a procedure known as fluoridation.
Citing a controversial study
In his remarks, Kennedy cited a research from the National Toxicity Program, an arm of the National Institutes of Health, that found a “direct inverse correlation between fluoride exposure and low IQ in children.”
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, as well as the American Dental Association, criticized Kennedy’s work for lack of statistical rigor and other methodological errors.
The use of fluoride in the United States has been a successful public health strategy for reducing dental cavities and increasing overall oral health since 1945, according to the National Institutes of Health.
However, the government stated that pregnant women and children may be consuming more fluoride than is acceptable from a variety of sources, including “treated public water, water-added foods and beverages, teas, toothpaste, floss, and mouthwash.”
Kennedy, who blamed the food industry’s chemicals for the country’s “chronic health epidemic,” also announced intentions to ban nine petroleum-based synthetic dyes within two years.
He stated that he was working to remove sodas and candies from the food assistance program. He has linked the dyes to a variety of neurological disorders, including ADHD in children.
