The Oklahoma State Department of Health scrubbed all mention of its Community Water Fluoridation Program ahead of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s order to review the state policy on recommending water systems add fluoride to prevent childhood tooth decay.
As of May 2025, the Health Department still endorsed the program and published data about why fluoridation is important for health outcomes, archived versions of the program’s landing page show. However, that information have now been deleted from the Health Department’s website.
Erica Rankin-Riley, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the governor’s office did not direct the department to remove the page, but the decision was made in anticipation of his executive order.
Stitt signed an executive order on Thursday, June 26 that requires the department to immediately cease any promotion or endorsement of fluoridation until new a new set of recommendations can be developed. That report is due within 90 days.
“I’m instructing the Oklahoma Department of Health to stop recommending fluoride in our water,” Stitt said at a news conference alongside U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Cities and water districts, they can still choose what they want based on their constituents and the science, but it’s no longer going to be a recommendation from the state Health Department.”
What is fluoride? What are its benefits?
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that strengthens tooth enamel, helps reverse minor decay and helps neutralize acid that can damage teeth.
Decades of scientific research and positive outcomes have shown fluoride to be an effective way to help prevent childhood tooth decay. But questions over its use in public water supplies have been amplified in recent months by Kennedy, who President Donald Trump picked to oversee the nation’s health agenda.
Kennedy recently said that fluoride makes Americans “stupider,” citing a study that has been criticized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the American Dental Association for inadequate statistical rigor and other methodological flaws.
The now-deleted state web page described fluoride as “safe, cost-effective and beneficial to all who drink and use the water.” It credited fluoride use with a “remarkable decline in the prevalence and severity of dental decay.”
“It is recommended that all applicable public water systems in Oklahoma be fluoridated to the optimal level for oral health,” the website said.
The ultimate effect of Stitt’s executive order remains to be seen. Water fluoridation has always been a local decision, but one that was based on federal and state recommendations. While local water systems will still be able to add fluoride to their water, the political shift could push some communities to abandon the practice.
Some systems use naturally fluoridated groundwater.
Fluoride skepticism has existed in the United States since the first policy recommendations were written in 1951. It largely remained a fringe opposition movement rooted in conspiracy theories. But in recent years, fluoride skepticism has gained traction in conservative circles.
Real-world examples of cities abandoning fluoridation support the prevailing scientific consensus that the practice prevents tooth decay. After the Canadian city of Calgary and Juneau, Alaska, stopped adding fluoride to their water systems, researchers discovered that children developed significantly more cavities.
After 10 years without fluoride, Calgary’s government voted to bring it back.
Original article online at: https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/politics/state/2025/06/26/fluoride-in-water-oklahoma-kevin-stitt-rfk-jr-make-oklahoma-healthy-again/84370323007/