Travel & Lifestyle: RFK Jr. Tells Fox News The Rotten Truth About His Anti-Fluoride Crusade

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted on Thursday there are some potentially big holes in his decision to stop recommending water fluoridation nationwide ― as in cavities.

During an interview on Fox News, host Harris Faulkner asked the conspiracy theory-peddling health and human services secretary to address concerns from America’s dental community about lower-income children who might not be getting preventative dental care.

Kennedy admitted there would be trade-offs for getting rid of fluoride in water.

“It’s a balance,” he said. “You’re gonna see probably slightly more cavities. Although in Europe, where they banned fluoride, they did not see an uptick in cavities. The issue is, parents need to decide, because science is very clear on fluoride.”

Many years of research show that water fluoridation can significantly reduce cavities in both children and adults, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has hailed it as one of the country’s 10 greatest health achievements of the 20th century.

Kennedy, however, has railed against it. He said in April that when it comes to fluoride, “the more you get, the stupider you are,” referencing a 2025 journal article that suggested fluoride might lower IQs in children.

The authors of that study have said themselves that their findings should not be used to evaluate the use of fluoride in water in the U.S., for a variety of reasons.

Kennedy was also wrong when he suggested that Europe as a whole had banned fluoride in water. While it’s true that many European countries do not add it to their water, the region has a patchwork of practices, as outlined by a 2018 report. Some parts of the U.K. and Ireland fluoridate their tap water, while Greece adds it to bottled water. And in some areas, fluoride occurs naturally in the water supply.

Thus far in the U.S., Kennedy’s push has led Florida and Utah to ban water fluoridation.

Here’s a clip of the exchange:

Because the science is very clear that water fluoridation can prevent cavities, and because oral hygiene affects overall health, many people mocked Kennedy for minimizing the potential effects of his anti-fluoride crusade, which is expected to harm low-income children the most.

One person snarkily saw an upside to RFK Jr.’s anti-fluoride push.