Kentucky lawmakers are sponsoring bills to legalize the intrastate sales of raw milk, make fluoridated water optional and stop state agencies from crafting rules based on guidance from the World Health Organization.
What these bills have in common is a shared skepticism of established directives and guidance from top U.S. health organizations and leading medical groups.
The growing skepticism of the reigning scientific consensus is spreading widely, not just in state legislatures, but in Congress and by top right-wing political leaders including President Donald Trump and his choice to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Federally, the Trump administration has already halted or slowed the work and communication of top public health organizations. In a widely-reported memo, the acting HHS secretary ordered an “immediate pause” on regulations, guidance, press releases and online posts until they got approval from a political appointee.
Many of the policies now under attack through rightwing legislation are credited with improving public health and preventing the spread of disease. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, public health initiatives have come under fire, with some conservatives questioning the scientific consensus and accusing recognized health organizations of having political motivations.
Many of the Kentucky GOP lawmakers pushing for such policies belong to a wing of the party’s caucus that espouses more anti-establishment rhetoric and tends to closely follow Trump’s lead. Freshman Rep. T.J. Roberts of Burlington is one of the Kentuckians pushing strongly for withdrawing from public health initiatives, saying that “people are seeing firsthand that they have been lied to.”
“We’re at a point where the technocratic consensus is being challenged, that top down approaches to controlling the health decisions of Americans is being questioned,” Roberts said.
Optional Fluoride
Fluoride has long been the target of lawmakers hoping to either eliminate or dilute what the CDC calls “one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.”Conspiracy theories have long existed around the use of fluoride in the water — for example, in the 1960s the far-right John Birch Society alleged fluoridated drinking water was part of a Communist mind-control plot.
But anti-fluoride sentiments grew sharply and took on a scientific tone when scientists with the National Toxicology Program found a potential link between high levels of fluoride and small decrease in children’s IQ, calling for more research. It was in part that study that influenced a federal judge to rule the EPA must regulate fluoride levels in water.
And, according to GOP Rep. Mark Hart of Falmouth who is for the eighth year sponsoring a Kentucky bill to make fluoridating water optional for local governments in the state, those studies and rulings have only strengthened his resolve. Last year was the first time the bill made it to a committee during the session for a vote.
“Although a lot of people are calling for it to be banned now — after the court ruling in August and some of the comments made by the incoming administration — our goal is to make it a choice to undo the unfunded mandates, not to necessarily ban fluoride in Kentucky,” Hart said.
But experts say that, at the targeted 0.7 ppm — about 3 drops of water in a 55-gallon barrel — fluoride has not proven to be dangerous and is an effective and cost-efficient manner of strengthening teeth and reducing cavities. According to the CDC, drinking fluoridated water reduces cavities by about 25% in children and adults.
And notably, the oft-cited NIH study looked at fluoride concentrations twice as strong as that recommended by the CDC and targeted in Kentucky. Hart said he doesn’t want to get into the argument over fluoride — although he noted that, if fluoride is so effective, he wouldn’t have “a mouth full of cavities.” He said he believes it’s a matter of choice over health care, comparing fluoridated water to vaccines.
Original article online at: https://www.lpm.org/news/2025-02-04/yes-to-raw-milk-no-to-fluoride-some-ky-republicans-skeptical-of-public-health-initiatives