{"id":995,"date":"2025-04-09T22:48:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T22:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/?p=995"},"modified":"2025-04-11T14:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T14:27:11","slug":"moves-against-fluoride-in-drinking-water-alarm-health-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/09\/moves-against-fluoride-in-drinking-water-alarm-health-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Moves against fluoride in drinking water alarm health experts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the Trump administration takes steps to discourage the incorporation of fluoride in drinking water, experts warn the moves may have serious consequences for Americans\u2019 health. <\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday announced it would \u201cexpeditiously review new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water.\u201d <\/p>\n

The move came after a judge last year required the agency<\/a> to take a second look at fluoride due to potential concerns.  <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters Monday<\/a> that he would direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water.  <\/p>\n

Kennedy was in Utah, which banned adding fluoride to drinking water starting in May. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Why is fluoride added to water? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral used for its ability to help prevent cavities in teeth. It does so by replacing the minerals in your teeth that would otherwise be lost to acid coming from bacteria in your mouth.  <\/p>\n

Fluoride can naturally be found in water \u2014 but typically at levels that are too low to prevent cavities, so state and local governments across the country have often added it in. <\/p>\n

Municipal water fluoridation has been practiced in the U.S. since 1945 when Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first city to implement the practice.  <\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s role largely consists of making recommendations on concentration. The U.S. Public Health Service currently recommends a maximum of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. <\/p>\n

According to the CDC, more than 209 million people in the U.S. \u2014 72.3 percent of the U.S. served by a public water system \u2014 had access to fluoridated water in 2022, and 11 million people had access to community water systems with naturally occurring levels of fluoride above the recommended concentration. <\/p>\n

According to the CDC, this added fluoride reduces cavities<\/a> by about 25 percent in children and adults.  <\/p>\n

Scott Tomar, spokesperson at the American Dental Association and professor at the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois Chicago, noted that dental health can be important not just for your teeth \u2014 but for your overall health.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThe mouth, the teeth, have a substantial impact on pretty much every aspect of people’s lives \u2014 certainly their health,\u201d he said. \u201cAn infection of your tooth becomes an infection of the surrounding area and often spreads to other parts of the body.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said that fluoride in drinking water can help prevent not only tooth decay, but also infections.  <\/p>\n

\u201cIn places that have stopped fluoridation, not only did they see an increase in the rates of tooth decay, starting with young children,\u201d he added. \u201cThey saw [an] increase in the rate of emergency care.\u201d <\/p>\n

Recent scrutiny of fluoride <\/strong><\/h2>\n

There has been pushback to water fluoridation since the practice became popular, and in recent years opponents to the practice have expressed concerns over potential impacts on IQ.  <\/p>\n

The National Toxicology Program released a study<\/a> last year associating high levels of fluoride \u2014 1.5 milligrams per liter \u2014 with lower IQ in children, but researchers noted it was unclear if the low levels of fluoride used in U.S. water systems have the same effect. <\/p>\n

Because the 1.5 mg\/L level is much higher than levels used in the U.S., Tomar said \u201cit simply has no relevance to the levels of exposure we have in this country.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, based largely on the National Toxicology Program\u2019s assessment, a judge last year ordered the EPA<\/a> to consider taking action to address the potential IQ impacts from fluoride. <\/p>\n

The ruling from Obama appointee<\/a> Edward Chen did not necessarily say that fluoride at current levels is unsafe. But Chen raised concerns that the agency was using an inadequate margin of error.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThe EPA\u2019s default margin of error … requires a factor of 10 between the hazard level and exposure level due to variability in human sensitivities. Put differently, only an exposure that is below 1\/10th of the hazard level would be deemed safe,\u201d he wrote.  <\/p>\n

So is flouride safe? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Many experts say yes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have about 80 years of evidence that community water fluoridation is effective at preventing tooth decay and is safe at the levels that we use it,\u201d Tomar said.  <\/p>\n

Kennedy has long spoken out against fluoride, calling it a \u201ctoxic pollutant\u201d and \u201cindustrial waste.\u201d Shortly before the 2024 presidential election, he said he would advise all water systems to remove the mineral. <\/p>\n

Experts say the available data doesn\u2019t support the level of criticism fluoride receives. <\/p>\n

“They’re not looking at the science and they don’t want to look at the science, because that’s not how they’re thinking,\u201d said Myron Allukian Jr., former city of Boston dental director and past president of the American Public Health Association. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to set our country back. It’s going to make America sick again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Critics also argue the ubiquity of fluoride toothpaste makes water fluoridation unnecessary, but Allukian said adding it to drinking water confers benefits beyond brushing, allowing the mineral to become part of developing teeth and thus more resistant to cavities. <\/p>\n

Allukian noted that every surgeon general from the Eisenhower to the Biden administration has supported adding fluoride to water as a \u201cscientifically safe and effective public health measure.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Trump administration takes steps to discourage the incorporation of fluoride in drinking water, experts warn the moves may have serious consequences for Americans\u2019 health. ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}