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U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants communities to stop fluoridating water, and he is setting the gears of government in motion to help make that happen. Kennedy this week said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide. And he said hes assembling a task force of health experts to study the issue and make new recommendations. At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it would review new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water. The EPA sets the maximum level allowed in public water systems. Here’s a look at how reversing fluoride policy has become an action item under President Donald Trump’s administration. The benefits of fluoride Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the CDC. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and in 1962 set guidelines for how much should be added to water. Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main one for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water was long considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. The American Dental Association credits it with reducing tooth decay by more than 25% in children and adults. About one-third of community water systems 17,000 out of 51,000 across the U.S. serving more than 60% of the population fluoridated their water, according to a 2022 CDC analysis. The potential problems of too much fluoride The CDC currently recommends 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. Over time, studies have documented potential problems when people get much more than that. Excess fluoride intake has been associated with streaking or spots on teeth. And studies also have traced a link between excess fluoride and brain development. A report last year by the federal governments National Toxicology Program, which summarized studies conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico, concluded that drinking water with more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter more than twice the CDC’s recommended level was associated with lower IQs in kids. Meanwhile, last year, a federal judge ordered the EPA to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that its not certain fluoride is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that research pointed to an unreasonable risk that it could be. Kennedy has railed against fluoride Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has called fluoride a dangerous neurotoxin and an industrial waste tied to a range of health dangers. He has said its been associated with arthritis, bone breaks, and thyroid disease. Some studies have suggested such links might exist, usually at higher-than-recommended fluoride levels, though some reviewers have questioned the quality of available evidence and said no definitive conclusions can be drawn. How fluoride recommendations can be changed The CDC’s recommendations are widely followed but not mandatory. State and local governments decide whether to add fluoride to water and, if so, how much as long as it doesnt exceed the EPA’s limit of 4 milligrams per liter. So Kennedy cant order communities to stop fluoridation, but he can tell the CDC to stop recommending it. It would be customary to convene a panel of experts to comb through the research and assess the evidence that speak to the pros and cons of water fluoridation. But Kennedy has the power to stop or change a CDC recommendation without that. The power lies with the secretary, but public trust would erode if recommendations are changed without a clear scientific basis, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University. If youre really serious about this, you dont just come in and change it, he said. You ask somebody like the National Academy of Sciences to do a study and then you follow their recommendations. On Monday, Kennedy said he was forming a task force to focus on fluoride, while at the same time saying he would order the CDC to stop recommending it. HHS officials did not answer immediately questions seeking more information about what the task force would be doing. Some places are already pulling back on fluoridation Utah recently became the first state to ban fluoride in drinking water, and legislators elsewhere are looking at the issue. An Associated Press analysis of CDC data for 36 states shows that many communities have halted fluoridation in recent years. Over the last six years, at least 734 water systems that consistently reported their data in those states have stopped fluoridating water, according to the AP’s analysis. Mississippi alone accounted for more than 1 in 5 of those water systems that stopped. Most water systems that discontinued fluoridation mainly did so to save money, said Melissa Parker, the Mississippi state health departments assistant senior deputy. During the pandemic, Mississippis health department allowed local water systems to temporarily cease fluoridating because they could not purchase sodium fluoride in the midst of global supply chain issues. Many never restarted, Parker said. CDC funding for fluoride is typically a small factor Since 2003, CDC has funded a limited number of state oral health programs through cooperative agreements. The agreements run in cycles, and at the beginning of this year 15 states were each receiving $380,000 over three years. The money can be used on a number of things, including collecting data on people with dental problems, dental care and technical assistance for community water fluoridation activities. The current oral health funding is going to Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Caolina, Virginia and Wisconsin. The states are told not to use the money for chemicals, because the funding is intended to help set up fluoridation, not for everyday expenses, federal officials have said. South Carolina, for example, sets aside up to $50,000 to help communities in that state fluoridate. Iowa spends about $65,000 to promote community water fluoridation. Earlier this year, CDC officials declined to answer questions about how much of the total oral health money has been going toward fluoridation. Now, there is no one to ask: Last week, the CDCs entire 20-person Division of Oral Health was eliminated as part of widespread government staffing cuts. Congress appropriated money to CDC specifically to support oral health programs, and some congressional staffers say the agency must distribute those funds no matter who is running the HHS or CDC. But Trump-driven budget cuts have struck at a number of programs that Congress had called for, and it’s not clear what will happen to the CDC oral health funding. Fluoridation is relatively cheap compared with other water department expenses, and most communities simply incorporate the cost into the water rates charged to customers, according to the American Water Works Association. In Erie, Pennsylvania, for example, fluoridating water for 220,000 people costs about $35,000 to $45,000 a year and is entirely funded by water rates, said Craig Palmer, the chief executive of the Erie Water Authority. So cutting off the CDC money would not have much impact on most communities, some experts said, although it could be more impactful for some smaller, rural communities. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Mike Stobbe and Kasturi Pananjady, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Shares in Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) are trading slightly higher this morning after the company reported its Q2 2025 earnings. The results, which beat on earnings and revenue, are notable as they will be one of the last earnings reports the company posts as a publicly traded company. Heres what you need to know about Walgreens’s results. Walgreens shares trading higher after Q2 2025 results As of the time of this writing, WBA shares are up about 1.72% in early-morning trading. The price rise likely reflects the fact that much of the markets are up todaya first in the past three trading days since April 2 when President Trump announced his chaotic tariffs on countries around the world. However, WBA stock is also likely rising slightly today due to the fact that the company posted beats on revenue and earnings for its second quarter of fiscal 2025. For the second quarter, Walgreens Boots Alliance announced revenues of $38.6 billiona 4.1% increase from the same quarter a year ago. The company also announced an adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 63 centsdown from an adjusted EPS of $1.20 in the quarter a year earlier. Walgreens said that the EPS decline was due to several factors, including prior year adjusted effective tax benefit, lower U.S. retail sales and prior year sale-leaseback gains, partly offset by cost savings within U.S. Retail Pharmacy and growth in U.S. Healthcare. As noted by CNBC, despite the disappointing EPS, Walgreens still managed to beat analyst expectations. Analysts had expected an EPS of just 53 cents and revenue of $38 billion. No fiscal 2025 guidance One notable absence from Walgreens’ Q2 2025 numbers was its fiscal guidance for the rest of the financial year. The company removed its previous FY25 guidance because it is being taken private. Last month, private equity firm Sycamore Partners agreed to buy the struggling pharmacy chain for $11.45 per share. That transaction is scheduled to conclude in the final quarter of the 2025 calendar year, pending regulatory and other approvals. Walgreens had previously said in January that it had expected a full-year 2025 EPS of between $1.40 and $1.80 per share. However, in its press release for its Q2, Walgreens stated that WBAs previously issued guidance for full year fiscal 2025 should no longer be relied upon. Walgreens stock price down from 12-month highs Given that Sycamore Partners has already agreed to buy Walgreens Boots Alliance for $11.45 per share, its no wonder that the companys stock price has fluctuated little since the deal was announced last month. As a matter of fact, until Trumps tariff announcements last week, WBA stock had been relatively steady since the deal was announced. However, primarily due to global stock markets crashing in the past several days, WBA stock is currently still down about 4.7% in the past month. WBA stock is also down significantly from where it was a year ago, when it traded at over $19 per share. Since its January 2024 highs, WBA shares have fallen over 43%.
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E-Commerce
Olja Ivanic looked forward to welcoming some cousins from Sweden to her Denver home in June. Ivanic and the four travelers were planning to go hiking in Colorado and then visit Los Angeles and San Francisco. But then President Donald Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a February meeting at the White House. Ivanics four relatives immediately canceled their scheduled trip and decided to vacation in Europe instead. The way (Trump) treated a democratic president thats in a war was beyond comprehensible to them, said Ivanic, who is the U.S. CEO of Austria-based health startup Longevity Labs. The U.S. tourism industry expected 2025 to be another good year in terms of foreign travelers. The number of international visitors to the United States jumped in 2024, and some forecasts predicted arrivals from abroad this year would reach pre-COVID levels. But three months into the year, international arrivals are plummeting. Angered by Trumps tariffs and rhetoric, and alarmed by reports of tourists being arrested at the border, some citizens of other countries are staying away from the U.S. and choosing to travel elsewhere. The federal government’s National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures Tuesday showing visits to the U.S. from overseas fell 11.6% in March compared to the same month last year. The figures did not include arrivals from Canada, which is scheduled to report tourism data later this week, or land crossings from Mexico. But air travel from Mexico dropped 23%. For the January-March period, 7.1 million visitors entered the U.S. from overseas, 3.3% fewer than during the first three months of 2024. The travel forecasting company Tourism Economics, which as recently as December anticipated the U.S. would have nearly 9% more international arrivals this year, revised its annual outlook last week to predict a 9.4% decline. Tourism Economics expects some of the steepest declines will be from Canada, where Trumps repeated suggestion that the country should become the 51st state and tariffs on close trading partners have angered residents. Canada was the largest source of visitors to the U.S. in 2024, with more than 20.2 million, according to U.S. government data. Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, a travel booking site, said leisure bookings to U.S. destinations were down 40% in March compared to the same month a year ago. Air Canada has reduced its schedule of spring flights to Florida, Las Vegas, and Arizona due to lack of demand. The National Travel and Tourism Office gave a rosier forecast last month for international travel to the U.S. Based on 2024 travel patterns, the office said it expected arrivals to increase 6.5% to 77.1 million this year and surpass 2019 levels in 2026. But Tourism Economics said the impact of the less favorable view of the U.S. from abroad could be severe enough that international visits won’t surpass pre-pandemic levels until 2029. The survey data is all indicating a significant mix of cancellations and a massive drop in intent to travel, Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks said. Ian Urquhart, a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, was supposed to go to Las Vegas for five days in June and see Coldplay in concert. He canceled the trip to protest Trump’s incredibly disparaging tone toward Canada even though it meant losing a $500 deposit on the vacation package. His oldest daughter similarly nixed a planned May trip to Sedona, Arizona, while his brother-in-law decided not to go on his usual weeklong golf trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, according to Urquhart. None of us jumped for joy when we made those decisions, but it seemed to be one of the few ways we could signal how we felt about the bullying that has been directed towards Canada by your president, Urquhart said. For Pepa Cuevas and her husband, who live in Madrid, Trumps election in November was a turning point. The couple had planned to spend a month skiing in Colorado over the winter holidays. They went to Japan instead. Trumps victory left us, especially me, very shocked, Cuevas said. For the moment, we have lost the desire to return. I dont know what will happen in the future, but for the moment we are still shocked, and it doesnt look like this is going to be resolved. According to the government data released Tuesday, international arrivals from China were down nearly 1%. Leisure trips by Chinese citizens to places like Disneyland, Hawaii and New York are decreasing dramatically and likely wont pick up again until Trump has left office, said Wolfgang Georg Arlt, the CEO of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. He dubs it the Trump Slump. That slump has financial consequences. Tourism Economics expects U.S. spending by international visitors to drop by $9 billion this year. Marco Jahn is the president and CEO of New World Travel, a California company that works with overseas tour operators on vacation packages and activity planning. It arranges the hotels and rental cars for a family that wants to take a driving tour of U.S. national parks, for example. Jahn said bookings have dropped between 20% and 50%, depending on the source market, over the last eight to 10 weeks. He notes particular declines from Scandinavia, where Trumps repeated threat to take control of Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark, has antagonized citizens. The U.S. is not perceived as a welcoming destination, Jahn said. Beyond, a revenue management platform for vacation rental owners, said Canadian searches for short-term rentals in the U.S. plunged 44% after Feb. 1, when Trump first announced a since-paused 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico. Florida, Texas, and New York were among the hardest-hit markets, Beyond said. American Ring Travel, a tour operator based in California, offers carbon-neutral bus tours of the U.S. that often attract eco-conscious travelers from Europe, said Richard Groesz, the companys director of contracting. But bookings from Germany flattened starting in January after Elon Musk threw his support behind a far-right political party in that countrys federal election, Groesz said. There are other issues impacting foreign visits. The U.S. has been the top destination by country for Japanese tourists for years, but data ompiled by JTB Tourism Research & Consulting showed South Korea topped the U.S. in January. The weak yen not Trump is likely the biggest factor dampening the attraction of the U.S., said Takaaki Mitamura, a spokesperson for Tokyo-based travel agent Veltra Corp. Travelers are picking destinations where the currency effect isnt as big, like South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia, he said. Haruka Atomiya, a Tokyo resident, visits Los Angeles at least once a year. Last year, she brought her young children for the first time and did a lot of research to find affordable places to stay. The exchange rate made some hotels double or triple the price she paid in the past. Atomiya, who went to college in Vermont, has always loved the diversity and the freedom in the U.S. She said she doesnt understand why Americans elected Trump, but doesnt plan to stop visiting unless she senses any physical danger. If America changes in a way thats clearly visible, thats a reality, too, and I will likely keep visiting, she said. What will happen to America after Trump intrigues me. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer AP Writers Yuri Kageyama and Teresa Medrano contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
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