The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division charged with promoting water fluoridation was axed this week, resurfacing questions on the Trump administration’s stance on adding tooth-strengthening yet toxic chemicals to tap water systems.
Some answers are likely to come next week, when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to visit Utah, Arizona and New Mexico as part of a “tour to celebrate” initiatives spawned from Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, including state laws that “ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water,” an HHS news release says.
An EPA spokesperson confirmed Administrator Lee Zeldin is scheduled to join Kennedy for a Monday news conference in Utah, which became the first state to ban community water fluoridation last month.
Zeldin has yet to speak publicly about his stance on fluoride. HHS can only recommend fluoride drinking water levels, while EPA has the regulatory authority to ban or further limit levels. EPA attorneys as of Friday morning are still petitioning to overrule a lower court’s ruling mandating the agency address the unreasonable risks posed by fluoride in drinking water.
