Health risks of removing fluoride from drinking water

Leaders in Union and Lincoln counties have decided to remove fluoride from public drinking water. 

Utah and Florida are the first states to ban the practice. Now, the FDA is gearing up to ban prescription fluoride supplements.

Often referred to as the champagne of drinking water, New York City’s water is carefully monitored by the Department of Environmental Protection.

“Our job is to make sure that we are adding the precise amount of fluoride within a very narrow band,” NYC DEP’s Rohit Aggarwala said. “Too little and it doesn’t do its job. Too much and it could be harmful.”

The city’s acting Commissioner of Health says the addition of fluoride is important for the health of New Yorkers and opposes its removal.

“I’d be concerned about kids who live in families where getting into preventative care is very challenging, and there are tremendous barriers to care, unfortunately, in New York City,” NYC Department of Health Michelle Morse said.

The CDC’s recommended fluoride concentration is 0.7 mg/l of water, about equal to three drops of water in a 55 gallon barrel.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is advising to remove it altogether.

HHS and the EPA are reviewing a report from the National Toxicology Program linking high levels of fluoride, more than double the recommended amount, to lower IQ in children.

But there was insufficient data to determine the impact of lower levels.

Doctor Vicky Evangelidis-Sakellson with Columbia University’s Dental College agrees with many in her field that fluoride in water is safe and effective. She thinks politicians should leave science to the experts.

“It is a complex problem and they should give money and funding to do the studies,” Evangelidis-Sakellson said. “So when we talk, we talk based on data and we don’t talk based on feelings.”