A growing number of state and local elected officials around the country are pushing to eliminate fluoride from water systems.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drinking fluoridated water keeps teeth strong and reduces cavities by about 25%.

But despite the health benefits there’s growing opposition to adding the mineral that began being introduced to U.S. water systems in the 1940s. 

What You Need To Know

  • A growing number of state and local elected officials around the country are pushing to eliminate fluoride from water systems

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drinking fluoridated water keeps teeth strong and reduces cavities by about 25%

  • But despite the health benefits there’s growing opposition to adding the mineral that began being added to U.S. water systems in the 1940s

  • The new federal Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr., is a well-known critic and his concerns seem to be having an impact

“It has been challenged… from day one, and all kind of things have been reported to be potential negative health effects, and none of those have been born to be true,” said UNC Chapel Hill professor Dr. Tim Wright.

The new federal Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr., is a well-known critic and his concerns seem to be having an impact.

“He’s actually the one that got me thinking about this,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republiucan

Miller is pushing for lawmakers to ban fluoridation.

“You want to put fluoride in your water, you knock yourself out, just don’t make me and my grandchild put fluoride in our water,” Miller said.

Last year a federal judge cited concerns that high levels of fluoride could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children and ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to take steps to lower that risk. The CDC says at low levels it is safe.

According to 2020 numbers from the CDC nearly 73% of people on community water systems in the U.S. received fluoridated water.

The District of Columbia and Kentucky have the highest levels at 100% and 99.9%.

Hawaii and New Jersey have the lowest rates at 8.5% and 16.1%.

Lawmakers in Utah recently passed a ban on fluoride in water and legislation was introduced in Florida.

In the past year, Union County commissioners in North Carolina voted to not add fluoride to water and recently Lincoln County commissioners did the same. 

"We just didn’t feel it was an investment we wanted to make," said Lincoln County commissioner Jamie Lineberger. "And a majority of the people in the county aren’t on county water anyway, majority of our residents are on wells."

Lineberger said the decision was financially based and not influenced by the national conversation over fluoride in water.

“There will be more cavities, there will be more tooth decay, they will require more fillings, it will be much more expensive,” Wright said.

Since being sworn in last month Kennedy hasn’t issued any new guidance on fluoride but before the election teased on X that “on January 20 the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water system to remove fluoride from public water."

The decision to fluoridate a water supply is not mandated by the federal government but is rather made by the state or local municipality.