Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that a Potential Trump in the White House would advise communities to remove fluoride from drinking water, overturning decades of public health guidelines.

Fluoride is a mineral naturally found in water that oral doctors say can help prevent cavities in the right doses. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes community water fluoridation – the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water to increase its concentration to optimal levels – as a “fundamental strategy” for preventing caries and one of the “10 great public health interventions of the 20th century.”

However, health agencies warn that long-term ingestion of fluoride in excessive doses carries various health risks, and critics like Kennedy have campaigned to end community water fluoridation. The Environmental Protection Agency has established a maximum allowable concentration of fluoride in public drinking water to prevent adverse health effects.

Kennedy said the Trump White House would advise reducing that authorized concentration to zero on his first day in office.

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Former President Trump greets Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on stage during a Turning Point Action campaign rally at Gas South Arena October 23, 2024, in Duluth, Georgia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to eliminate fluoride from public water,” Kennedy posted on X. “Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease,” he said, adding that former President Trump and first lady Melania. Trump “want to make America healthy again.”

His statement sparked a wave of criticism on social media and renewed concern among experts about Kennedy – who often clashed with the government. scientific consensus on vaccine safety – be placed in a position of authority over public health.

“While President Trump has received a variety of policy ideas, he is focused on Tuesday’s election,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in response to media questions about Kennedy’s statement.

Currently, more than 200 million Americans, or about 75% of the population, drink fluoridated water.

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A photo illustration of tap water in a clear glass drinking glass in West Reading, Pennsylvania on June 15, 2021. (Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)

In 1950, federal authorities approved water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after brands of fluoridated toothpaste came onto the market several years later. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city in the world to fluoridate its water.

Experts have long argued that cleaning teeth with fluoride does not compare to the risks posed by ingesting fluoride, the latter of which can trigger harmful neurotoxic effects.

Officials lowered their recommendations for fluoride levels in drinking water in 2015 to combat a dental disease called fluorosis, which can cause tooth staining and is becoming increasingly common among American children.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there was a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in children. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels approximately twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

Then, in September, a federal judge in California cited that study in an order demanding that the EPA further regulate fluoride because high levels pose “an unreasonable risk” to children.

“Indeed, EPA’s own expert agrees that fluoride is dangerous at a certain level of exposure,” said U.S. District Judge Edward Chen. “And there is ample evidence that a mother’s exposure to fluoride during pregnancy is associated with a decrease in IQ in its offspring.

Nonetheless, the judge said the court “does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is harmful to public health.”

RFK JR SAYS Trump ‘promised’ him ‘control’ over ‘public health agencies’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits “The Story With Martha MacCallum” at the Fox News Channel studios on September 25, 2024 in New York. (Jason Méndez/Getty Images)

Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. For five decades previously, the recommended upper range was 1.2″ after evidence increasingly linked fluoride to adverse effects including severe enamel fluorosis, risk of bone fracture and potential skeletal fluorosis,” the judge wrote. Skeletal fluorosis is a potentially debilitating disease that causes bone weakness, stiffness and pain.

THE World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5. Additionally, the EPA has long required that water systems cannot contain more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per gallon of water.

Kennedy said Trump promised to give him “control” of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), if the former president wins the White House on Tuesday.

“I am ready to help him rid public health agencies of their pervasive conflicts and corruption and restore their tradition of evidence-based scientific credentials,” Kennedy told The New York Times in a statement.

The Trump campaign said no decisions have been made regarding Cabinet-level positions or personnel, including the secretaries of HHS and USDA.

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“No formal decisions regarding Cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to make America healthy again by providing families safe food and ending the epidemic of chronic disease affecting our children,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“President Trump will also create a special presidential commission of independent minds and charge it with investigating the causes of the decades-long increase in chronic disease,” she added.

Trump told supporters at a rally Saturday that he told Kennedy he “can work on food, you can work on anything you want” except energy policy.

“He wants health, he wants women’s health, he wants men’s health, he wants children, he wants everything,” Trump said.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan, Alex Nitzberg and Associated Press contributed to this report.