Once set to preside over Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr has now pledged to eliminate fluoride from the nation’s potable water supply. This resolve, nonetheless, seems to contradict his past avocations, as the Kennedy family member was formerly involved in the sale of bottled water that contained a flouride content surpassing the levels present in most American tap water.
Dating back to 1999, RFK Jr was a co-founder of a brand named Keeper Springs, which produced bottled water designed to aid the efforts of his environmental advocacy group, the Waterkeeper Alliance. This organization was firmly committed to the restoration of polluted water bodies. The company positioned its product on grocery store aisles amidst big names like Evian, packaging its bottled water in ecologically conscious 50% recycled PET containers. The brand, with a patriotic treatment of red, white, and blue on its labels, however, also had an unusually high fluoride concentration in its water.
A scientific examination in 2009 revealed that RFK Jr’s water product contained almost double the fluoride levels recommended by the Health and Human Services department, which he is currently poised to head. A litre of Keeper Springs water contained as much as 1.3 milligrams of fluoride compared to the department’s advice limit of 0.7 milligrams per litre. Regrettably, by 2013, Keeper Springs wrapped up its business operations.
Fast forwarding twenty years from his time with Keeper Springs, Kennedy’s stance appears fundamentally changed. He is currently advocating for the total elimination of fluoride from America’s drinking water. This is a contentious move, considering that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes the controlled use of fluoride in drinking water as an effective tactic in preventing tooth decay.
The CDC has consistently praised the judicious use of fluoride as a seminal health breakthrough of the last century. However, the future of this acclaimed public health initiative is in question, now that RFK Jr will be supervising the CDC as the department’s health secretary.
Earlier this year, he declared his intentions to ‘instruct the CDC to undertake every required measure to expunge neurotoxic fluoride from the drinking water sources of Americans’, echoing his intentions if he were to assume the nation’s highest office. On November 2nd, he publicly showed support for Trump and made a number of claims about the adverse effects of fluoride.
Kennedy highlighted that fluoride could be tantamount to industrial waste and linked it to a variety of health issues including arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, reduced intellectual quotient, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. Further, he stated with determination that after January 20, ‘upon the recommendation of the incoming Trump administration, all U.S. water systems will be directed to eradicate fluoride from the public’s water supply’.
The incoming President found no fault with RFK’s ambitions, stating that the initiative to remove fluoride from the drinking water supply across the nation ‘doesn’t sound objectionable to me’. This endorsement certainly adds weight to Kennedy’s campaign against fluoride, despite his contrasting involvement with the substance in the past.