Robert F Kennedy Jr. became involved in a fiery on-air spat with an NBC reporter over his calls for the removal of fluoride in the US water supply.
The one-time presidential hopeful lost his cool amid a debate with news journalist Vaughn Hillyard in Palm Beach, Florida.
Kennedy claimed the mineral is lowering children’s IQs during the interview which took place following Donald Trump’s election win.
The reporter cut him off – prompting an on-air explosion.
‘Listen to me!’ he fumed.
Robert F Kennedy Jr. got into a fiery on-air spat with an NBC reporter over his calls for the removal of fluoride in the US water supply
RFK J has pledged to remove the substance from the public water supply in his first act as an official in a possible member of the Trump administration.
He insisted the mineral is ‘lowering IQ in our children’.
‘I think fluoride is on its way out’ Kennedy exclaimed on Wednesday, before being pressed by Hillyard on what he would actually do.
‘How would you make that happen?,’ Hillyard demanded. ‘This is your chance is what you’re suggesting to me. How would you make that happen?
‘I think the faster that it goes out, the better,’ he said.
‘I’m not going to compel anybody to take it out, but I’m going to advise the water districts about their legal liability, their legal obligation to their service, to their constituents.
‘And I’m going to give them good information about the science. And I think fluoride will disappear.’
The former presidential hopeful was being interviewed by news journalist Vaughn Hillyard in in Palm Beach, Florida
Kennedy claimed the mineral is lowering children’s IQs during the interview which took place following Donald Trump ‘s election win
Robert F Kennedy Jr is a staunch anti-vaxxer and declared he would pull fluoride from public water systems if given a position in a possible Trump White House
Kennedy has been outspoken against fluoride, claiming it causes bone cancer, IQ loss and neurodevelopmental disorders.
The Staunch anti-vaxxer has been eying a position within Trump’s administration ever since he dropped out of the presidential race in August and endorsed the Republican nominee.
Adding fluoride to water has been touted as a great public health achievement, but doubt over its benefits and concerns of its health impact have been on the rise.
Water fluoridation is standard national policy in the US, England and Canada, but other developed countries such Germany, Sweden, Scotland and Switzerland have discontinued it, arguing people now get enough fluoride through other sources, like toothpaste and mouthwash.
And earlier this year, a US federal judge ruled the EPA should reevaluate national fluoride regulations based on a study performed by a federal organization that provided evidence ‘with moderate confidence’ that fluoride was linked to lower IQ in children.
The Staunch anti-vaxxer has been eying a position within Trump’s administration ever since he dropped out of the presidential race in August and endorsed him
The US started adding fluoride to their tap water in the 1940’s. Roughly 72 percent of Americans that use public utilities get fluorinated drinking water
Still, Dr Paul Offit, a physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told NPR that Kennedy’s claims are misleading.
Dr Offit said: ‘Fluoride has been well tested. It clearly and definitively decreases cavities, and is not associated with any clear evidence of the chronic diseases mentioned in that tweet’.
Other health authorities side with Offit, listing water fluoridation as one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century.
The NIH says it helps to prevent cavities, stave off illnesses and avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in associated medical costs for Americans.
Much of the literature around water fluoridation, which began in the US in 1944, shows the practice is safe.
