Connecticut requires large water systems to add fluoride to the water. Could RFK Jr. change that?

CT Insider – Monday, December 9, 2024
By John Moritz

For the vast majority of Connecticut residents, a glass of water drawn from the tap comes with a miniscule amount of fluoride — and has so for decades — as part of public policy aimed at preventing tooth decay.

Starting next year, however, those policies could see a major shift with the new presidential administration in Washington.

President-elect Donald Trump last month tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that issues recommendations for the amount of fluoride in public water systems throughout the U.S.

Kennedy, a former Democrat known for his longtime skepticism of vaccines, turned his sights on fluoride shortly before the election, posting on social media that Trump should advise public water systems to begin removing the mineral from water on his first day in office, calling it “industrial waste” linked to numerous health problems.

While those recommendations are not binding at the federal level, Connecticut law mandates that public water systems serving more than 20,000 customers maintain fluoride within a range of whatever of the levels are recommended by HHS.

That means if the federal guidelines were changed to recommend against fluoridation, Connecticut waters systems would be obligated to follow suit (unless, of course, the current law is changed).

“The Connecticut Department of Public Health is committed to ensuring the quality of public drinking water and supports community water fluoridation as an effective public health intervention to prevent dental decay,” agency spokesman Chris Boyle said in an email Thursday. “We continue to explore all opportunities to protect and preserve this fundamental public health intervention that has improved dental hygiene for many Connecticut residents.”

Currently, 31 public water systems serving more than 90 percent of Connecticut residents meet that threshold, and must report daily fluoride levels to the state Department of Public Health. (Some smaller water systems exempt from the requirement purchase treated water from larger systems, thus supplying their customers with fluoridated water as well).

When asked about Kennedy’s comments last month, Gov. Ned Lamont chuckled and offered a wait-and-see approach.

“We’ve got to stockpile birth control pills and fluoride, I guess,” Lamont said, referring to concerns that Republicans could seek to limit access to contraceptives. (During the campaign, Trump said he would consider doing so, before back tracking).

Quickly, the governor added, “Let’s see how that all sorts out. There is a lot of loud rhetoric that comes out of the campaign, maybe things will calm down and get back to our senses.”

Should the Trump administration take steps to get rid of the fluoridation recommendations, then state lawmakers would likely act to preserve the program in Connecticut, said state Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, the co-chair of the legislature’s Public Health Committee.

“Public health is local, the state has a very big say in how the public health laws are going to be written and implemented,” Anwar said.

Anwar, a trained physician, said he supports water fluoridation as a public health measure.

“There is plenty of data, this is proven that fluoridation reduces dental cavities,” Anwar said, adding that access to dental care is limited for many poorer Americans, despite recent steps to improve access in Connecticut. “We don’t want to lose ground, we have done well for the dental care of our children.”

Support for water fluoridation is far from universal, however, and some welcomed the news of Trump’s decision to appoint Kennedy (which must be approved by the Senate).

“Thrilled,” said Christine O’Day, a wellness guide from Wilton who previously led the defunct advocacy group ConnFACT that pushed lawmakers in Hartford to rescind the state’s fluoridation mandate. “I am all on board with the things he wants to do.”

O’Day said that she was so happy with the pick that she recently acquired new vanity license plates with the letters “MAHA,” a play on Trump’s famous slogan meaning “Make America Healthy Again.”

Spurred by local officials — and in some cases voters — a few areas in the U.S. have ditched the federal guidelines and stopped fluoridating water altogether. Among them are Portland, Ore. and State College, Pa. Earlier this year, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review its limits on fluoride in water, saying the current regulations pose “unreasonable risks” to children.

A spokesman for the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority in New Haven, Kevin Watsey, said in an email that “we really have no opinion” when it comes to the federal guidelines on water fluoridation.

“We always treat the water to meet regulations,” Watsey said. “If those regulations change, we change what we do to meet the new regulation.”

Likewise, a spokesman for Aquarion, the state’s largest water utility, said the company is “neutral on the subject.”

“We aren’t the health experts,” said the spokesman, Peter Fazekas. “We rely on the health experts at the EPA, [the Centers for Disease Control] and Connecticut DPH to make those decisions on the science.”

The first cities to add fluoride to public water supplies began doing so in the 1940s, after scientists noticed lower rates of tooth decay in children living in areas with naturally-occuring fluoride. The first federal fluoride guidelines were released in 1962.

“It has over the years been recognized as one the best public health measures in dentistry,” said Dr. Bina Katechia, a professor of pediatric dentistry at UConn Health.

Critics of fluoridation, however, argue that fluoride is toxic at higher levels and can cause staining of the teeth, known as dental fluorosis.

“Many of the studies that are quoted are based on very, very high levels of fluoride in different parts of the world,” Katechia said. “So it’s much, much higher than what we are adding to our water supply. I think that’s what’s behind some of the misinformation.”

Critics of fluoridation also point to the federal government’s decision in 2015 to adjust its longstanding recommendation for fluoride concentration to .7 milligrams per liter, down from a range of .7 to 1.2 milligrams. That change was attributed to new evidence about the effectiveness of the program, the prevalence of dental fluorosis and the availability of fluoride through other sources such as toothpaste.

The following year, Connecticut lawmakers voted to tie the state’s mandate to the levels recommended by the federal government, rather than a specific number or range.

While the vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, O’Day said that the debate was “pretty divided,” with some lawmakers expressing strong feelings on either side of the issue.

“To me, I just don’t understand why we would pay money to put something in the water supply that’s kind of questionable, when I myself pay for water filtration in my house to get it out of my water and there’s a lot of people doing that,” O’Day said.

Naturally-occurring fluoride occurs in some private wells in Connecticut, and residents without public water are encouraged to test their fluoride levels, particularly if they have young children.

Access this article at its original source.