HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly took issue with the use of fluoride once more during an April 30 cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump, USA Today reported.
Eight notes:
1. During the meeting, Mr. Kennedy reportedly said fluoride made kids “stupider,” and said he plans to scale back the amount of fluoride in the country’s drinking water.
2. Mr. Kennedy also praised Utah for becoming the first state to prohibit fluoride from being added to public water systems.
3. Mr. Kennedy celebrated anti-fluoride measures during his recent Make America Healthy Again tour that spanned several Southwest states, including Utah.
4. Earlier this month, Mr. Kennedy said he plans to advise the CDC to stop recommending adding fluoride to public water supplies.
5. During the April 30 cabinet meeting, Mr. Kennedy also cited a heavily contested report released last year by the National Toxicology Program, which linked higher levels of fluoride exposure with lower IQ in children.
6. The NTP study was criticized by several organizations, including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the American Dental Association, for its methodology.
7. A recent study from the University of Queensland in Australia discovered that early-life exposure to fluoride does not have any measurable impact on IQ scores in children. The results revealed that children who consistently drank fluoridated water had an average IQ score of 1.07 points higher than children with no fluoride exposure.
8. A coalition of more than 200 health professional organizations and research bodies recently backed the safety and effectiveness of water fluoridation.
