RFK Jr. Says Trump Would Push to End Adding Fluoride to Drinking Water

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to reporters at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Sept. 10, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that former President Donald Trump will seek to end public water fluoridation if he’s elected president.

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy, who Trump said will be part of his administration if he wins on Nov. 5, wrote in a post on social media platform X over the weekend.

Kennedy then made reference to a landmark September ruling from a U.S. district judge who directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address concerns about whether fluoridation can lead to lower IQ in children. The American Dental Association and related medical groups said they disagreed with the ruling and repeated their recommendation that fluoride be added to drinking water supplies.

“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy wrote on X.

Since 1945, U.S. municipalities have added fluoride to tap water in a bid to combat tooth decay. The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that water systems have a fluoride level of 0.7 milligrams per liter.

A report issued early this year by the National Toxicology Program, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that high levels of fluoride in other countries could be tied to lower IQ levels in children. The agency found that drinking water levels with 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter could pose a problem in children.

For the past five decades, the recommended upper range has been 1.2 milligrams per liter. The World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5 milligrams.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen wrote that while it isn’t certain that the amount of fluoride typically recommended in the United States can lower the IQ of children, recent research shows the compound could pose a risk.

“If there is an insufficient margin, then the chemical poses a risk,” the judge wrote. “Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA” under federal law, according to Chen.

He said that “scientific literature in the record provides a high level of certainty that a hazard is present” and that “fluoride is associated with reduced IQ.”

Since the ruling, several U.S. towns and cities have moved to suspend adding fluoride to water, including two municipalities in New York’s Westchester County and the city of Abilene, Texas.

Responding to Chen’s ruling, the American Dental Association and American Academy of Pediatrics stated in September that they are questioning “the validity of the research on which Chen relied heavily in his ruling.”

“Numerous factors impact IQ, and it is unclear whether IQ data from different studies are accurate, comparable or generalizable,” their joint statement said, citing experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Kennedy Makes More Proposals

Separately, Kennedy has recently said that Trump would allow him to take control of the Department of Health and Human Services, although Trump campaign officials have said no formal cabinet or agency personnel decisions have been made.

The Epoch Times contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment on Kennedy’s statement on fluoride. Trump himself told NBC News on Nov. 3 that he had not spoken to Kennedy about fluoride yet, “but it sounds OK ... you know, it’s possible.”

During a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City last month, Trump told an audience that he would allow Kennedy to “go wild” on health, food, and medicines. Last week, the 45th president vowed at a Michigan rally that Kennedy would “have a big role” in federal health agencies and has some views that he “[happens] to agree with very strongly.”

Earlier this year, Kennedy suspended his independent presidential bid and backed Trump. The former president often makes mention of the endorsement from Kennedy, the scion of a Democratic dynasty and the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.