After Sowing Distrust in Fluoridated Water, Kennedy and Skeptics Turn to Obstructing Other Fluoride Sources
Are they actually going to vote on something real?
Last year, when Utah lawmakers passed the nation’s first statewide ban on community water fluoridation, they included a provision making it easier for people to get fluoride supplements without having to visit a dental provider.
This would make fluoride available through individual choice, rather than “mass public dosing,” as a Utah House of Representatives webpage put it — part of the rising rhetoric of skepticism that’s led to rollbacks of water fluoridation, a proven method to reduce tooth decay.
“It’s what I like to refer to as the win-win, right?” Speaker Mike Schultz said on a June episode of the “House Rules” podcast from the Utah House. “Those that want fluoride can now get fluoride easier, and those that don’t want fluoride in their drinking water don’t have to have that.”
But even as critics point to fluoride supplements as an alternative — along with fluoride toothpaste, rinses and varnishes — many are creating barriers to these same products.
Under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s oversight, the Food and Drug Administration said it issued notices to four businesses about their ingestible fluoride supplements for children and also put out new guidance for health professionals.
In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched investigations into two large companies over their marketing of fluoride toothpaste to parents and children.
And changes to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten to make it harder than it already is for the most vulnerable people to access any oral health care at all, let alone fluoride treatments at a dentist’s office.
More than anything, experts say, alarmist language from high-profile officials is trickling down to the public, leading more people to question whether any form of fluoride — in drinking water or in other treatments — is a good idea.
Scott Tomar, a professor and associate dean at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry, is among those who have watched with dismay as the conversation about fluoride has been affected by arguments likely to scare people.
“I’m certain that the net result of all of this is going to be a greater reluctance on the part of parents and providers to prescribe fluoride supplements,” Tomar said.
Low, consistent exposure to fluoride is widely credited for dramatic declines in decaying teeth. But long-simmering skepticism about its use gained more influence in recent years, especially with Kennedy’s credibility and influence as the nation’s chief health officer.
“The evidence against fluoride is overwhelming,” he said as he stood alongside Utah lawmakers at a press conference in Salt Lake City last April.
Even though the science to support his conclusions is limited, he claimed that fluoride “causes IQ loss, profound IQ loss,” and he linked water fluoridation to ADHD, hypothyroidism, osteoarthritis, and kidney and liver issues.
Lee Zeldin, who leads the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke at the Utah event, too, crediting Kennedy for helping to spur the agency’s review of its standard for fluoride in drinking water. An EPA spokesperson, in a statement to ProPublica, …
Are they actually going to vote on something real?
Last year, when Utah lawmakers passed the nation’s first statewide ban on community water fluoridation, they included a provision making it easier for people to get fluoride supplements without having to visit a dental provider.
This would make fluoride available through individual choice, rather than “mass public dosing,” as a Utah House of Representatives webpage put it — part of the rising rhetoric of skepticism that’s led to rollbacks of water fluoridation, a proven method to reduce tooth decay.
“It’s what I like to refer to as the win-win, right?” Speaker Mike Schultz said on a June episode of the “House Rules” podcast from the Utah House. “Those that want fluoride can now get fluoride easier, and those that don’t want fluoride in their drinking water don’t have to have that.”
But even as critics point to fluoride supplements as an alternative — along with fluoride toothpaste, rinses and varnishes — many are creating barriers to these same products.
Under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s oversight, the Food and Drug Administration said it issued notices to four businesses about their ingestible fluoride supplements for children and also put out new guidance for health professionals.
In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched investigations into two large companies over their marketing of fluoride toothpaste to parents and children.
And changes to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten to make it harder than it already is for the most vulnerable people to access any oral health care at all, let alone fluoride treatments at a dentist’s office.
More than anything, experts say, alarmist language from high-profile officials is trickling down to the public, leading more people to question whether any form of fluoride — in drinking water or in other treatments — is a good idea.
Scott Tomar, a professor and associate dean at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry, is among those who have watched with dismay as the conversation about fluoride has been affected by arguments likely to scare people.
“I’m certain that the net result of all of this is going to be a greater reluctance on the part of parents and providers to prescribe fluoride supplements,” Tomar said.
Low, consistent exposure to fluoride is widely credited for dramatic declines in decaying teeth. But long-simmering skepticism about its use gained more influence in recent years, especially with Kennedy’s credibility and influence as the nation’s chief health officer.
“The evidence against fluoride is overwhelming,” he said as he stood alongside Utah lawmakers at a press conference in Salt Lake City last April.
Even though the science to support his conclusions is limited, he claimed that fluoride “causes IQ loss, profound IQ loss,” and he linked water fluoridation to ADHD, hypothyroidism, osteoarthritis, and kidney and liver issues.
Lee Zeldin, who leads the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke at the Utah event, too, crediting Kennedy for helping to spur the agency’s review of its standard for fluoride in drinking water. An EPA spokesperson, in a statement to ProPublica, …
After Sowing Distrust in Fluoridated Water, Kennedy and Skeptics Turn to Obstructing Other Fluoride Sources
Are they actually going to vote on something real?
Last year, when Utah lawmakers passed the nation’s first statewide ban on community water fluoridation, they included a provision making it easier for people to get fluoride supplements without having to visit a dental provider.
This would make fluoride available through individual choice, rather than “mass public dosing,” as a Utah House of Representatives webpage put it — part of the rising rhetoric of skepticism that’s led to rollbacks of water fluoridation, a proven method to reduce tooth decay.
“It’s what I like to refer to as the win-win, right?” Speaker Mike Schultz said on a June episode of the “House Rules” podcast from the Utah House. “Those that want fluoride can now get fluoride easier, and those that don’t want fluoride in their drinking water don’t have to have that.”
But even as critics point to fluoride supplements as an alternative — along with fluoride toothpaste, rinses and varnishes — many are creating barriers to these same products.
Under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s oversight, the Food and Drug Administration said it issued notices to four businesses about their ingestible fluoride supplements for children and also put out new guidance for health professionals.
In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched investigations into two large companies over their marketing of fluoride toothpaste to parents and children.
And changes to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten to make it harder than it already is for the most vulnerable people to access any oral health care at all, let alone fluoride treatments at a dentist’s office.
More than anything, experts say, alarmist language from high-profile officials is trickling down to the public, leading more people to question whether any form of fluoride — in drinking water or in other treatments — is a good idea.
Scott Tomar, a professor and associate dean at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry, is among those who have watched with dismay as the conversation about fluoride has been affected by arguments likely to scare people.
“I’m certain that the net result of all of this is going to be a greater reluctance on the part of parents and providers to prescribe fluoride supplements,” Tomar said.
Low, consistent exposure to fluoride is widely credited for dramatic declines in decaying teeth. But long-simmering skepticism about its use gained more influence in recent years, especially with Kennedy’s credibility and influence as the nation’s chief health officer.
“The evidence against fluoride is overwhelming,” he said as he stood alongside Utah lawmakers at a press conference in Salt Lake City last April.
Even though the science to support his conclusions is limited, he claimed that fluoride “causes IQ loss, profound IQ loss,” and he linked water fluoridation to ADHD, hypothyroidism, osteoarthritis, and kidney and liver issues.
Lee Zeldin, who leads the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke at the Utah event, too, crediting Kennedy for helping to spur the agency’s review of its standard for fluoride in drinking water. An EPA spokesperson, in a statement to ProPublica, …
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