Make Our Children Healthy Again report released
Connects oral and chronic health, excludes smoking tobacco
The White House, as part of the broader Make America Healthy Again platform, released the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy to improve children’s health outcomes on Sept. 9. While the report references oral health, it does not consistently detail dental disease.
The Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy — which follows a 73-page May report on the behavioral, medical and environmental impacts on children’s health — includes recommendations for advancing research and innovation, realigning incentives and systems emphasize outcomes, streamlining processes and targeted deregulation, agency restructuring, increasing public awareness and knowledge and fostering private sector collaboration. The report was spearheaded by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It does not mention smoking tobacco at all, which the ADA has previously advocated for reducing due to its negative impact on oral and overall health. The strategy states the Environmental Protection Agency will review new scientific information on fluoride to inform Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, and highlights the role of diet and ultra-processed foods in driving childhood diseases. Although it acknowledges the links between oral health and broader chronic conditions, it does not detail specific policies or programs.
Unlike the previous report, the latest strategy does not mention specific agricultural chemicals but calls for research and programs to help growers adopt precision agricultural techniques, including remote sensing and precision application technologies intended to optimize crop applications and decrease pesticide volumes.
It also restates many U.S. Department of Health and Human Services food and supplement initiatives that are already underway. These include reforming the “generally recognized as safe” framework; developing post-market review of chemical additives in food; advancing policies to limit or prohibit the use of food dyes; working toward a definition of “ultra-processed foods”; updating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in a user-friendly format; requiring front-of-pack nutrition labeling; and ensuring safe and high-quality infant formula.
Featured in the report are items affecting pharmaceuticals and devices, such as directing agencies to reduce regulatory hurdles to bring new treatments to patients and to expand sources of data supporting drug and device development.
Some the items in the report are not regulated by the federal government, so related activity may occur through future congressional or state action.
