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Removal of fluoride from drinking water worries experts

The Trump administration’s efforts to discourage the incorporation of putting fluoride in drinking water will have serious health consequences, experts warn.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced earlier this week that it will “expeditiously review new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water.”

The move comes after a judge directed the EPA to investigate the use of fluoride in drinking water due to potential concerns over the mineral.

It also comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters that he would order the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) to stop recommending the mineral be added to drinking water.

Fluoride helps prevent cavities in teeth and can be found naturally in water — but at levels that are too low to offer any benefit to people. Municipalities have been adding fluoride to drinking water to mitigate tooth decay for the last 80 years.

Adding the mineral to water can help reduce cavities by about 25 percent in both children and adults, according to the CDC.

More than 209 million people in the U.S. — 72.3 percent of the U.S. served by a public water system — had access to fluoridated water in 2022, and 11 million people had access to community water systems with naturally occurring levels of fluoride above the recommended concentration, according to the agency.

Scott Tomar, spokesperson for the American Dental Association and professor at the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois, Chicago, told The Hill good dental health is beneficial for Americans overall health.

“The mouth, the teeth, have a substantial impact on pretty much every aspect of people’s lives — certainly their health,” he said. “An infection of your tooth becomes an infection of the surrounding area and often spreads to other parts of the body.”

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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