1 week Ago
After becoming the first state to ban fluoride from its water, Utah is one month away from the mineral being complete removed from Utahns’ taps — a move President Donald Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has urged states to make.
On Monday, he joined Republican state lawmakers and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in the Beehive State as the latter announced his agency is reviewing scientific data and is “prepared to act” to lower the threshold of fluoride allowed in drinking water nationwide. Kennedy, meanwhile, told The Associated Press after the news conference that he plans to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending communities add fluoride to their water. In the months since he was appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed to over see health in America, Kennedy has called on states to pass legislation advancing his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda — adapted from Trump’s “MAGA.
” Utah, with one of the earliest legislative sessions in the country, took up the charge by banning fluoride from public water systems, as well as adopting other policies pushed by Kennedy as part of his “MAHA” agenda: prohibiting families from using food stamps to buy soda and limiting school cafeterias from serving foods that include synthetic dyes and other chemical additives. “I’m very proud of Utah,” Kennedy said from the podium, “it has emerged as the leader in making America healthy again.” (Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, speaks as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr. listens during a news conference to discuss health-oriented laws passed during the Utah legislative session, held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Monday, April 7, 2025. Some of Utah’s members of Congress — Rep.
Mike Kennedy , a physician, and Sen. Mike Lee — have introduced federal bills inspired by the new state laws. Introducing the health secretary at the news conference, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz said, “While other states are just talking about the solutions, Utah is actually implementing and creating the solutions.
” Kennedy spent the earlier part of the day touring a holistic health center at the university. Over lunch, he also met with Lt. Gov.
Deidre Henderson and legislators — they discussed “MAHA,” a spokesperson for Kennedy said Schultz told reporters at the news conference that the possibility of states taking on the administration or responsibilities of more federal programs also came up. “We’d like to stand as a national experiment allowing us, the state of Utah, to keep some of its federal tax dollars to run some programs. .
.. We want to be a pilot project, help discontinue the federal oversight,” Schultz said.
One issue lawmakers are especially interested in removing federal regulations, Schultz said, is the development of nuclear energy. Kennedy has developed a reputation for spreading health and anti-vaccine disinformation. A few days before the 2024 election, Kennedy said in a post on X that a Trump administration would “advise all U.
S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” alleging that the mineral “is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.” (Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Protestors yell chants outside the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Monday, April 7, 2025, against a visit by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr. While there is conflicting evidence as to the accuracy of those claims, fluoride is scientifically proven to strengthen tooth enamel and prevent cavities. The Utah Dental Association was among the groups that spoke out against Utah’s bill.
As approved attendees trickled into a building on the University of Utah campus to listen to Kennedy, a few dozen protesters holding posters, including one that said “Make America Scientific Again,” gathered outside. They could be heard chanting, “RFK has got to go.” Kennedy traveled to Utah from Texas, where he attended the funeral of the second child in the state to die of measles amid an outbreak there.
The health secretary’s past remarks downplaying measles risks and raising doubt about the efficacy of vaccines were scrutinized during his confirmation, but over the weekend, he said on social media that “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the [measles, mumps and rubella] vaccine.” A third Trump administration official, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, was also in Utah Monday to meet with the Utah Transit Authority and ride the state’s FrontRunner commuter rail train, with U.S.
Sen. John Curtis joining him. As part of his time in the West, Kennedy is also visiting Arizona and New Mexico.
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