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Column: Trump's anti-science backers go after water fluoridation, a historic healthcare success
Regular visits to the dentist to fill cavities used to be a shared ordeal for millions of American children and adults. The reason that hasn’t been the case for late baby boomers and subsequent generations is that the fluoridation of drinking water became common starting in the late 1940s and continuing today.
So it’s right to question why Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has placed the ending of fluoridation atop his list of first-day initiatives in his campaign against American public health.
“On January 20,” Kennedy tweeted a few days before the election, “the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”
‘Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face.’
— The unhinged Gen. Jack D. Ripper in the 1964 film ‘Dr. Strangelove’
The reason, he asserted, is that “fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”
That’s all flatly untrue or grossly misleading. Kennedy’s screed against fluoridation is part and parcel of a policy package that has legitimate scientists warning of a public health catastrophe in the making.
Fluoridation of tap water has generated local controversies ever since it was introduced in the U.S. in 1945. But it remains fully supported by a majority of Americans and by professional organizations including the American Dental Assn. and the American Academy of Pediatrics. That suggests that the proper stance of a Health and Human Services secretary would be to voice support for the practice. Kennedy has done just the opposite.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fluoridation is one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, up there with vaccination, family planning and recognition of the health dangers of tobacco.
Fluoridation revolutionized dentistry, especially for children. Fluoridation of tap water was credited with reducing the incidence of tooth decay by as much as 70% when it was first introduced; by the mid-1980s, when other sources of fluoride, such as fortified toothpastes, were available, the effects of tooth decay in children were still 18% lower among those living in fluoridation communities than in those without it.
Who would benefit from the end of community fluoridation and a recrudescence of tooth decay? Dental supply companies, investors in which are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of more demand for their products. For example, shares of Henry Schein Inc., a distributor of specialty dental products, have risen more than 9% since RFK Jr. was named as Trump’s choice for HHS secretary.
Kennedy’s tweet about fluoridation exemplifies the anti-vaccine crowd’s method of casting doubt on established public health policies. There are two elements. One is to portray rare adverse health effects — some so rare that their very existence is questionable — as major and acute threats. The second is to downplay the beneficial effects of a policy. That leaves the public believing that the policy has only adverse effects, and that those are immediate and severe.
Tooth decay is a little-recognized public health problem, in part because fluoridation has made it rarer than it used to be. But it hasn’t disappeared. The American Academy of Pediatrics calls it “one of the most common chronic diseases in children,” and one that can have “lifelong consequences.” It disproportionately affects children who are racial minorities, come from low-income families or have special needs.
It’s not only about the occasional toothache or cavity needing filling. Tooth decay can produce “incapacitating pain,” bacterial infection that may spread throughout the body, and, of course, to the loss of a tooth. In the first part of the last century, the only remedy for decay was to pull the tooth.
As of 2012, two-thirds of Americans had access to fluoridated tap water. Thanks to fluoridation, the CDC says, “tooth loss is no longer considered inevitable, and increasingly adults in the United States are retaining most of their teeth for a lifetime.”
More baby boomers reached 60 with “a relatively intact dentition at that age than any generation in history,” the CDC says. Interestingly, that makes water fluoridation more important than ever, since it means that seniors have more teeth vulnerable to decay than before.
Communities that have ended fluoridation have seen dental illnesses soar. Since fluoride was removed from drinking water in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in 2011, Alberta Children’s Hospital has seen dental infections requiring treatment with IV antibiotics increase by 700%, a hospital specialist told the City Council in 2019. Half of those infections were in children younger than 5.
Windsor, Ontario, Canada, voted in 2018 to resume fluoridation five years after it had ended the program, after discovering that the number of children with tooth decay or oral conditions requiring urgent care had increased by 51% in the interim.
Opponents of fluoridation have played on paranoid fears for decades, but into the 1960s, these were popularly dismissed as ravings from fringe organizations. In the 1964 film “Dr. Strangelove,” the unhinged Gen. Jack D. Ripper declares that “fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face” — echoing the position of the John Birch Society.
The anti-fluoridation camp has long claimed that the process “increased the risk for cancer, Down syndrome, heart disease, osteoporosis and bone fracture, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, low intelligence, Alzheimer disease, allergic reactions, and other health conditions,” the CDC noted in 1999. “No credible evidence supports an association between fluoridation and any of these conditions,” the agency stated.
More recently, critics object that fluoridation “is being imposed on them by the states and as an infringement on their freedom of choice,” the National Research Council reported in 2006 — similar to the elevation of individual “freedoms” over communal interests that animates the anti-vaccine movement.
The anti-fluoridation camp scored a legal victory in September, when federal Judge Edward M. Chen of San Francisco, an Obama appointee, ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to review its safety standard for fluoridation in tap water. Chen concluded not that “fluoridated water is injurious to public health” but that “there is unreasonable risk of such injury,” triggering a legal mandate that the EPA take a closer look.
Chen’s findings were heavily based on a government study with a checkered research history. More on that shortly. Despite the limitations of his order, it may well be taken as a validation of suspicions about fluoridation.
What of RFK Jr.’s roster of adverse health effects? Let’s take them one by one. To begin, although fluoride can be a byproduct of industrial processes, it’s also a mineral naturally present in soil, groundwater, plants and food.
Arthritis? The National Research Council’s 2006 analysis of government fluoride standards identified “no indications” in the existing scientific literature implying “that fluoride had a causal relationship with … rheumatoid arthritis.”
Bone fractures? The 2006 analysis determined that the leading evidence for fluoride’s effect on bone strength pointed to lifetime exposure to fluoride at concentrations at or exceeding 4 milligrams per liter, which is more than five times the concentration in fluoridated tap water. The effect was found chiefly in people prone to concentrating fluoride in their bones, such as those with kidney disease.
Bone cancer? The main source of this claim appears to be a 15-year study led by the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, published in 2006 in the journal Cancer Causes and Controls.
In the same issue of the journal, however, two Harvard experts cast doubt on the study, noting that the original researchers were unable to replicate their findings when they repeated their study with new subjects. The results, they said, “do not suggest an overall association between fluoride and osteosarcoma” (that is, bone cancer).
Evidence of “thyroid disease,” as Kennedy tweeted, is similarly inconclusive, especially at the approved levels of fluoride in tap water.
That brings us to Chen’s ruling in the San Francisco lawsuit. His findings relied heavily on a monograph by the National Toxicology Program first published in 2019. The paper initially concluded that “fluoride is presumed to be a cognitive neurodevelopmental hazard to humans,” based on findings that children exposed to high concentrations of fluoride showed lower IQs than others.
The survey focused on the effect of water with more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter, more than twice the approved level in the United States. It acknowledged that it had only “moderate confidence” that such concentrations could result in lower IQs, and stated that it had “insufficient data” to determine that the 0.7 mg/liter concentration in fluoridated tap water affects IQ.
There were lots of problems with the National Toxicology Program’s monograph. Two peer reviews by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine essentially ripped it apart, rejecting it both times. The program “had not adequately supported its conclusions,” the peer reviewers wrote.
The monograph lacked a “rigorous statistical review.” The reviewers recommended that the program “make it clear that the monograph cannot be used to draw any conclusions regarding low fluoride exposure concentrations … typically associated with drinking-water fluoridation.” Among other changes in the final monograph published this summer, the program removed references to a “neurodevelopmental hazard to humans.”
Critics also pointed out the inherent problems with treating IQ as an all-purpose measure of intelligence, since it’s well-known that IQ can be affected by “socioeconomic, physical, familial, cultural, genetic, nutritional, and environmental factors,” the American Academy of Pediatrics observes.
Kennedy’s mindset is curious: He has promoted treatment of COVID-19 with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which have been proven to be useless for the purpose, but he campaigns against fluoridation, which has demonstrated a health benefit over nearly eight decades. Is this any way to run a public health agency such as the HHS?
Residents of Monterey Park voted overwhelmingly to ban data centers on election day, making the San Gabriel Valley city the first in the nation to do so by public vote.
As of Wednesday, 86% of votes were in favor of Measure NDC, the city ban, according to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder/county clerk.
Other cities and towns have passed moratoriums on data centers, as a wave of opposition sweeps the country. But the Monterey Park vote can only be overturned by another ballot measure, making it the most permanent data center ban in a jurisdiction.
Monterey Park’s City Council had already banned data centers by ordinance, after a proposed 247,000-square-foot data center met an outpouring of public anger and concern. The developer withdrew that plan.
That facility would have been less than 500 feet away from the nearest home, and would have used three times the electricity of the entire 60,000-person city. Residents said it would have caused noise and air pollution and driven up electricity rates.
“This ensures long-lasting protections for current and future generations,” Amy Wong, co-founder of the group San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action, said of the vote. “It means that future city councils cannot overturn a data center ban, even if data center developers wanted to spend money to fund pro-data center candidates.”
The measure had no formal opposition. The developer of the proposed facility, investment firm HMC StratCap, said it wouldn’t engage in the ballot fight when it withdrew in March.
The Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group, expressed disappointment in the vote.
“It sends a signal that the area is closed for business, both for data centers and for other significant economic development projects,” state policy director Khara Boender said.
“It deprives local residents of the opportunity to compete for jobs and investment, while also causing the area to relinquish substantial long-term economic investment, high-wage jobs, and critical tax revenue to neighboring areas or other states.”
SGV Progressive Action worked with hyperlocal groups including No Data Center Monterey Park to rally support for the measure.
The group is now focused on stopping data center proposals in the City of Industry and fighting a move by City of Industry, Santa Fe Springs, Vernon and City of Commerce to welcome data centers and other industry with fast-tracked permitting and tax incentives.
City of Industry, in the San Gabriel Valley, and Vernon, south of downtown L.A., are primarily industrial areas, each with around 300 permanent residents. They are employment centers, and tens of thousands of workers commute in daily.
There has been little vocal opposition to data centers among the few residents of these cities. Wong said the protest is primarily coming from the surrounding neighborhoods.
“If a data center gets built in City of Industry, residents across the region would bear the brunt of pollution and increased utility costs,” Wong said, noting that it is surrounded by 16 other cities and unincorporated communities.
Data center proposals have been limited in California compared to Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois and Arizona, which sit at the center of a recent boom in hyperscaler facilities to power artificial intelligence.
California has the third-most data centers in the country, with 300, but high electricity rates, expensive land and regulatory hurdles mean that fewer, and smaller, facilities are currently planned than in other hotspots.
That doesn’t mean opposition hasn’t been fierce. In Coachella and Imperial County, residents are showing up in droves to protest local proposals.
In the San Gabriel Valley, Montebello, El Monte and Baldwin Park have all enacted temporary moratoriums, and Alhambra recently banned data centers as part of a zoning code update.
Wong said she hoped the ballot measure vote would galvanize the opposition. “The vote is a testament to the people power of our region,” she said. “Our region is worth protecting, and we won’t let data centers determine our future.”
A rule intended to prevent rent gouging in the wake of the Eaton and Palisades fires has lapsed in Los Angeles County, possibly exposing some renters to hikes.
The executive order that blocked rent increases was issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom amid the devastating wildfires last year. Under the order, landlords couldn’t increase rents by more than 10% above their prefire levels.
The rule, which was supposed to be temporary and was repeatedly extended, ended Friday after a vote to extend it again failed to garner enough votes. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Pacific Palisades, sounded the alarm in a motion to extend price protections that failed to pass at the Board of Supervisors’ May 19 meeting.
“These price gouging protections continue to be necessary as construction and rebuilding continue, and as thousands of people remain displaced,” the motion said. “Families which signed short-term leases could face drastic price increases of 50% or more without further price gouging protection.”
Los Angeles County is home to more than 1 million rental properties, though not all of them needed protection from the new rule. There are already stricter rent increase caps for many residences, depending on the location, type and age of the building. Despite the rent control in the region, the people of Los Angeles pay among the highest rents in the country.
It is uncertain whether renters will face rapidly rising rents now that the protection has lapsed. But some real estate experts and policymakers said there was no need for the temporary rule that was part of the governor’s state of emergency.
Supervisors Kathryn Barger, Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell abstained from voting on the motion to extend the protection, while Supervisors Hilda Solis and Horvath supported it.
“I abstained because I did not see sufficient evidence to justify extending this emergency ordinance, nor did I see evidence to eliminate it entirely,” Hahn said.
Barger’s office said she supported allowing the protections to sunset while waiting to see whether new information emerged.
“Market data already shows countywide rents are only about 2% above pre-emergency levels and rental inventory has grown,” Barger representative Helen E. Chavez Garcia said. “The Supervisor is also mindful of the burden these ongoing protections place on small property owners throughout the county.”
Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There haven’t been steep rent hikes in neighborhoods within three miles of the Palisades fire, according to a Times analysis of data from Zillow, the property listing company.
In ZIP Codes within three miles of the Palisades fire, rent increased 4.8% from December 2024 to April 2025. In areas around the Eaton fire, which destroyed swaths of Altadena, rent jumped 5.2% in the same period.
In L.A. County, ZIP Codes farther from the fires saw only about a 2% increase.
A landlords representative, Jesus Rojas of the Apartment Owners Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, told the supervisors during public comment at the meeting that the county’s rent-gouging rules have “long outlived the emergency they were intended to address” and are now being “wrongfully used to harm thousands of rental housing providers throughout the county.”
“There is no proof that multifamily rental housing providers are hugely increasing rents for impacted homeowners,” Rojas said.
Indeed, there are strong signs that the property market in the Los Angeles area has at last begun to cool.
L.A. metro-area rent prices recently fell to a four-year low, with the median rent slipping to $2,167 in December.
Meanwhile, condominium sales had their slowest start of the year in decades. Condo sales in Los Angeles have plummeted to a 20-year low, with fewer than 2,000 units sold in January and February — the worst start to the year since 2005.
Newsom defended the price-gouging protections shortly after they went into effect.
“In the days following the Los Angeles firestorms, we worked quickly to protect Los Angeles survivors from any form of exploitation,” he said in February 2025. “The state has the tools in place to not only block price gouging during this emergency, but also to prosecute bad actors.”
The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs said it received more than 2,000 complaints after the fires, alleging that retailers and landlords were taking advantage of people put in hardship by their losses, and sent out more than 2,000 cease-and-desist letters to businesses and landlords for alleged price gouging, said Morine Merritt, who oversees department investigations into consumer and real estate fraud.
“Close to 90% of the complaints that we received involved allegations of rent increases,” Merritt said in an interview. Now that the fire-related protections have expired, existing laws and “regular market conditions determine price increases for goods and services, including rents,” she said.
Crackdowns on fire-related rent gouging have been rare, said Chelsea Kirk of the activist organization the Rent Brigade, which analyzed L.A. County’s rental market in the year after the fires. It reported 18,360 potential examples of price gouging in listings but said that few lawsuits had been filed by authorities so far.
Last week, Rent Brigade announced what it said was the first private civil lawsuit brought by a family that claimed to be rent-gouged in the aftermath of the wildfires. Plaintiffs Randall and Candy Renick, whose Altadena home was damaged, said they were charged nearly three times the maximum permitted rate for nearly 10 months. They seek restitution of $96,000 plus civil penalties and attorneys’ fees.
The rental market has probably stabilized since the fires, Kirk said, but other families may still be “locked into illegal rents” that they agreed to pay when they were in a rush to find housing after they were displaced.
Dear Mr. Pelley:
I meant what I said in my letter last week to the 60 Minutes team: joining 60 Minutes is the honor of my career and I am grateful to be working alongside the people who have contributed to the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced. While I’m new to 60 Minutes, I’ve devoted my career to investigative journalism and storytelling. I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them. For that reason, one of the first things I did in my new role was call you to talk and invite you to dinner. It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort. Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation-demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress. I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama. I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal.
Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path.
Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS”) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.
Sincerely,
Nick Bilton
Executive Producer, 60 Minutes
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