When I was a kid in the 1950s and the 1960s and growing up in Southern California, it was still a period of paranoid, looney anti-Communism.
California was the home and birth place of the reactionary John Birch Society.
One of the Birch Society’s targets was cities and towns putting fluoride in the public water supply to combat tooth decay, particularly in the developing mouths of kids like me.
The Society was convinced that fluoride was a communist plot to put mind-controlling drugs in our water.
The great director, Stanley Kubrick, satirized this line of thinking in his film, Dr. Strangelove.
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began? Group
Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
ReTrump’s choice to head the federal Department of Health is Robert Kennedy, Jr.
For years Kennedy has promoted the false and dangerous claim that childhood vaccinations cause autism.
RFK, Jr. is America’s leading anti-vaxxer and medical conspiracy theorist. He has promised to make the removal of fluoride from the public water supply a reality under his leadership.
Fluoride in the public water system is one of my generation’s top 10 public health achievements and is still supported by organizations like the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
While the benefit now may be more modest, thanks to toothpaste, it’s important to consider the benefits to all Americans, including our neighbors with fewer financial resources.
Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetlina writes:
Because the public water system reaches everyone equally, fluoridation mitigates the impact of disparities in access to dental care in the United States. This is one of the beauties of public health—a mainly invisible population intervention, helping the most vulnerable.
Lower-income families still struggle to find dentists who take their insurance. In 2023, the American Dental Society found that only one in three dentists nationally accept Medicaid. This helps explain the CDC report that children in lower-income families have nearly three times higher rates of untreated cavities than children in higher-income families.
The impact of this goes well beyond preventing cavities. Poor dentition can be an important source of stigma and shame for a child and can serve as a visible sign of poverty. Studies show that children with poor dentition are more likely to withdraw from social participation, hide their smiles, and have higher rates of school absenteeism. These early life experiences can be a barrier to a sense of confidence and social belonging that can have lifelong effects.
Since RFK, Jr. is charged with protecting our public health system, I am concerned that his focus on ending childhood vaccinations and fluoride in the public water systems distracts from the genuine threats to public health.
Like lead in our pipelines.
Thirty percent of pipes delivering water to New York City buildings may have lead contamination.
Mine included.
Any amount of lead in our water is a public health hazard.
The Gothamist:
Leadad pipe hotspots are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods, such as Jamaica, Queens, and Pelham-Throgs Neck in the Bronx, where approximately 25% of each neighborhood's drinking water pipes contain lead. Just over 40% of lead lines are located in disadvantaged communities, which the state’s climate law defines as communities with low to moderate income households burdened by pollution. Overall, residents living in single or multi-family homes built before 1961 – the year lead pipes were banned in New York City – are most likely to have lead service lines, according to the New York League of Conservation Voters.
The snail-like speed in which the lead service pipes are being removed from our big cities is inexcusable.