Fluoride Shortage Hits Drinking Water for Millions of Americans - Newsweek

More than half a million Arkansans are temporarily without fluoridated drinking water after the utility reported running out of the chemical due to supply shortages, according to local outlet the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The fluoride chemical shortage comes amid a growing national debate over fluoridation, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long argued should not be added to drinking water.

The shortage in Arkansas—and others in Baltimore and Shreveport, Louisiana—affects millions nationwide and comes amid growing discussion of research examining potential health effects associated with higher fluoride exposure.

The Arkansas shortage, mainly affecting the Little Rock region, stems from international supply chain problems tied to geopolitical instability and overseas production challenges. According to the Associated Press, disruptions linked to the conflict involving Iran and staffing shortages in Israel affected the utility's ability to obtain the fluoride additive used in its treatment process.

In a statement to Newsweek, Douglas Shackelford, Public Affairs Officer for Central Arkansas Water (CAW), said the shortage is part of a broader national supply problem affecting water utilities nationwide.

"Supply chain issues connected to the war in Iran has affected our ability to procure hydrofluorosilicic acid, which is the chemical used to add fluoride to drinking water," Shackelford said. "Most of the supply of fluoride for drinking water comes from overseas, including producers in the Middle East."

Shackelford said the disruption affects all of CAW's approximately 500,000 customers.

Shackelford told Newsweek that CAW received a shipment of hydrofluorosilicic acid on Monday and had already resumed adding fluoride during the water treatment process. However, he warned that additional disruptions remain possible because utilities nationwide are drawing from the same limited supply.

That shipment has now arrived, according to Shackelford, who said the utility has resumed adding fluoride to treated water.

He added that CAW has lowered its fluoride dosage from the recommended level of 0.7 milligrams per liter to 0.6 milligrams per liter in an effort to stretch limited supplies and reduce the risk of future interruptions.

Despite the supply interruption in Arkansas, Tad Bohannon, CEO of Central Arkansas Water, said the utility does not expect a monthlong gap in fluoridation to have a significant long-term impact on residents' dental health and expects new supplies to arrive soon.

While Arkansas officials said they expect the interruption to be temporary, the episode raises questions about the stability of fluoride supplies at a time when water fluoridation is facing increased political scrutiny nationwide.

For now, the shortage in Arkansas appears to be driven largely by supply chain constraints and not policy changes. But as utilities grapple with supply challenges and federal officials continue debating the merits of fluoridation, the issue is just one of a number of national conversations surrounding public health, including water safety and the future of one of America's longest-running preventive health measures.

Central Arkansas Water isn't the only utility to face fluoride supply challenges this year.

In April, Maryland's two largest water systems, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water) and the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, temporarily reduced fluoride concentrations from the federally recommended 0.7 milligrams per liter to 0.4 milligrams per liter in order to conserve limited supplies of hydrofluorosilicic acid, the chemical used in community water fluoridation.

WSSC Water, which serves approximately 1.9 million people in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in the Washington suburbs, announced the reduction on April 7, 2026, citing nationwide supply-chain disruptions and reduced output from a major supplier in Israel. Utility officials said the move was a temporary measure and stressed that drinking water remained safe and fully compliant with federal and state standards. As of the latest updates published by WSSC, officials said they intended to restore the recommended fluoride level once supply conditions stabilize, but hadn't provided a firm timetable for this.

Baltimore made a similar change the following week, lowering fluoride levels at its Ashburton and Montebello treatment plants from 0.7 mg/L to 0.4 mg/L. The city's water system serves roughly 1.8 million residents in Baltimore and surrounding communities. Baltimore officials likewise emphasized that the adjustment was driven solely by supply availability and that the water remained safe to drink because fluoride is added for dental-health benefits rather than disinfection.

In Louisiana, the City of Shreveport announced in August that it had either reduced fluoride dosing and ultimately exhausted its fluoride supply amid the nationwide shortage. City officials said suppliers were unable to guarantee future deliveries and warned it could take months before new supplies become available. Mayor Tom Arceneaux said the problem was linked to broader supply-chain disruptions affecting fluoride production and distribution. Shreveport's water system continued operating normally, and officials stressed that the absence of fluoride doesn't affect drinking-water safety.

Water industry officials say disruptions of this scale are unusual because U.S. utilities have generally been able to obtain fluoridation chemicals without prolonged interruptions. Dan Hartnett, chief policy officer at the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, told NPR in April that water systems across the country were confronting an unprecedented shortage of hydrofluorosilicic acid tied to disruptions affecting key overseas suppliers. He said "one of the main suppliers in Israel lost a number of employees temporarily, because they’ve been called up into service in the Israeli military,” adding that this had led to a forced "shut down production at their facility in Israel. They haven’t been producing acid. They haven’t been able to ship it out.”

Since joining the Trump administration, Kennedy has continued to press for changes to federal fluoridation policy. In April 2025, he said he would direct the CDC to stop recommending community water fluoridation and announced plans for a new review of federal guidance.

Around the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a review of fluoride's health effects. The resulting actions didn't ban fluoridation, which remains a decision primarily made by state and local governments, but they intensified national debate about the practice.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that helps strengthen tooth enamel and reduce cavities. Since the 1950s, federal health officials have endorsed community water fluoridation as a public health measure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described community water fluoridation as one of the 20th century's most significant public health achievements, citing research showing it helps reduce tooth decay in children and adults.

Fluoride is added to many public water supplies across the United States at recommended levels that are intended to maximize dental health benefits while minimizing health risks associated with excessive fluoride exposure, including dental fluorosis and potential cognitive risks raised in recent studies.

Shackelford emphasized that fluoride is not required for water safety and that the shortage has not affected the quality of drinking water provided to customers.

"Not adding fluoride during this shortage does not affect the quality of the drinking water coming from our customers' taps," he said. Under Arkansas law, fluoridation is used as a public-health measure intended to help prevent tooth decay.

The supply shortages come amid a growing discussion over research examining potential health effects associated with higher fluoride exposure.

A federal review from the National Toxicology Program found evidence linking higher levels of fluoride exposure to lower IQ scores in children, though those studies involved fluoride concentrations above levels typically within federal regulations.

Supporters of fluoridation—which include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association, and the CDC—argue that these findings should not be used to evaluate the safety of water systems operating within federal guidelines.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Geoffrey Rowland.