House Speaker Mike Johnson said fluoride levels in water deserve “real evaluation” on Tuesday, a day after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would direct the CDC to stop recommending fluoridating drinking water.
“I think it deserves, from what I’ve read and from what I understand, it deserves real evaluation,” he said during a leadership press conference on Capitol Hill. “There’s a concern that it may be having a negative effect on the health of children.”
Kennedy spoke to reporters in Utah on Monday afternoon after it became the first state to remove fluoride from public drinking water. He praised the decision and said he would direct the CDC to stop recommending fluoridating drinking water and that he is assembling a task force on the issue, pointing to some evidence that high levels of fluoride exposure is associated with lower IQ in children.
Last year, the NIH’s National Toxicology Program conducted a systematic review of published literature on fluoride exposure and concluded with “moderate confidence” that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter is associated with lower IQ in children. That’s nearly twice the levels recommended by the CDC in U.S. drinking water to prevent cavities.
“It is important to note that there were insufficient data to determine if the low fluoride level of 0.7 mg/L currently recommended for U.S. community water supplies has a negative effect on children’s IQ,” the NIH said last year.
In Utah on Monday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also saidhis agency would review scientific data on health risks of fluoride in drinking water.
Last September, a federal judge in San Francisco sided with opponents of fluoridation in ordering the EPA to regulate the chemical.
The process could lead to a new, much lower federal limit for fluoride, which many cities and utilities have added to drinking water for decades to reduce tooth decay.
“Without prejudging any outcomes, when this evaluation is completed, we will have an updated foundational scientific evaluation that will inform the agency’s future steps to meet statutory obligations under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” Zeldin said in a statement.
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