U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Lee Zeldin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, were in Salt Lake City Monday at the University of Utah’s Research Park to give a nod to three key bills passed by Utah’s Legislature this year — one of which makes Utah the first state in the nation to ban fluoride in public drinking water.
In addition to banning fluoride, Utah passed several other policies that fall under the broad umbrella of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy” initiative, including limiting unhealthy food from coverage by SNAP benefits and prohibiting adding dyes to school food.
Kennedy reiterated his commitment to the goal of making Americans more healthy given the life-changing and dramatic increases over recent decades in obesity rates, juvenile diabetes, and studies that link certain additives to cancer and low IQ. Sperm counts in teenage boys are even down.
“We’re seeing crises in fertility in teenagers,” he said. “An American teenager has less testosterone than a 68 year old man,” and he said girls are experiencing puberty at younger and younger ages.
Cancer has a new face, he added.
“We’re seeing an explosion of cancers, including we talked just recently about colorectal cancers, which would never occur in young people. Now we’re seeing kids in their teens with colorectal cancer, and it’s exploding,” Kennedy said.
What’s the deal with fluoride?
As an environmental health lawyer, Kennedy has been calling to prohibit fluoride in drinking water for years. Multiple cities in the United States are moving toward a ban, and locally, the Riverton City Council voted unanimously in February to ban the substance, which is waste product of phosphate mining operations.
The momentum to ban fluoride from drinking water came after a California district judge said the EPA needs to revisit the issue because its mass introduction in water systems poses an “unreasonable risk” to neurological development in children.
The EPA has federal jurisdiction over the Clean Water Act which regulates water quality and pollution.
Zeldin said Kennedy has a lot of top priority issues, but the secretary’s No. 1 priority is to abolish the fluoridation of drinking water.
“If you ask if any members of the media ... to quiz Secretary Kennedy on every aspect of science that is out there on fluoride, he is ready for any question that you have for him.” Zeldin said.
“He’s read all of the studies. He’s memorized them.”
Both Kennedy and Zeldin mentioned a couple of 2024 studies, including one by the National Toxicology Program that said moderately higher levels of fluoride exposure, such as drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter, are associated with lower IQ in children. The report also concluded that more research is needed to better understand if there are health risks associated with exposure to lower fluoride concentrations.
Kennedy said it was those recent studies that helped solidify his opposition to fluoride.
“It has no business in our drinking water,” he said.
Zeldin said the EPA is reviewing those studies and “we’re prepared to act on the science with both the National Toxicology Program as well as other peer-reviewed studies.”
On Monday, the Utah Dental Association remained steadfast in its opposition to the fluoride ban, saying community water fluoridation is effective and safe.
“We welcome public discourse on health policy,” said Dr. Rodney Thornell, president of the Utah Dental Association, “but it’s important that these discussions are rooted in sound science and public health evidence. Fluoridation is one of the most studied and beneficial public health interventions of the last century.”
But Kennedy said the “do no harm” principle should be followed.
“If we want to be a moral nation, if we want to maintain our moral authority around the world, our chief obligation is to our children, and we’re letting them down. And I’m very, very happy that Utah has taken the lead in so many ways,” Kennedy said.
The EPA is in the midst of a review on fluoridated water in the aftermath of the California court decision, and other states such as Florida, Nebraska and Arkansas have fluoride on a menu of regulations to possibly delete.
Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said these MAHA bills that will become law are another example of how Utah is a leader.
“We’re not afraid to lead on these issues, and even though they were very controversial in some circumstances, we know that when Utah leads, other states will follow.”
HB81, or the fluoride bill, was sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, who described the measure as “a bill that prioritizes personal choice and expands medical freedom for Utah residents.”
The new law allows parents to get fluoride from a pharmacist without a prescription while protecting the rights of those who do not want it as a supplement in their water.
Residents of Sandy experienced the effects of excess fluoride after a 2019 malfunction of one of the city’s feeders that sickened hundreds of people.
Testing in some samples showed fluoride levels at 40 times the national threshold. Ten days after the first complaint from a resident and after the state could not confirm lead and copper testing results had returned to normal, the Utah Division of Drinking Water and the governor’s office required the city to issue a “do not drink” order.