Iowa proposes bill that would stop adding fluoride to drinking water
Legislators in Iowa have introduced a bill to stop water fluoridation in public and private water systems across the state.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long considered the addition of fluoride in water to be one of the greatest public health initiatives of the 20th century, according to a news article from WHO 13 in Des Moines. Iowa started the practice about 75 years ago in order to reduce dental decay, an effort that expanded access to fluoridated drinking water to nearly 90% of residents.
Nonetheless, critics of water fluoridation — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — have expressed concerns regarding recent studies linking fluoride to lower IQ levels. Dental experts have emphasized that the data from these studies is from foreign countries and included participants exposed to high and unsafe levels of fluoride. The latest U.S.-based research on fluoride conducted in the United States has concluded that the mineral is not correlated with IQ levels. The American Dental Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC, World Health Organization and every major health organization continue to recommend drinking water with fluoride because it is effective and safe at the low levels used in the United States as recommended by the CDC.
Read more: WHO 13
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