WSSC Water announced Tuesday that it is temporarily reducing the level of fluoride added to the drinking water in two Maryland counties amid supply chain disruptions partly related to the Iran war.
The company — one of the biggest water and wastewater utilities in the U.S. — said it will lower its fluoride levels from approximately 0.7 milligrams per liter to 0.4 milligrams per liter at its Potomac and Patuxent Water Filtration Plants, according to a news release. The move impacts water supplied to its 1.9 million customers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
Some supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement have notably called for removing fluoride from U.S. public water supplies due to safety concerns. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in a Nov. 2, 2024 X post that fluoride is “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”
The water utility said that the water fluoridation market “has experienced significant disruption in recent months due to reduced domestic production and reduced output from other producers,” adding that one major supplier located in Israel has faced “significant operational impacts.”
“This is a temporary adjustment driven solely by supply availability,” WSSC Water’s director of production Ben Thompson said in a Tuesday statement. “We remain committed to maintaining safe, high-quality drinking water and will restore optimal fluoride levels as soon as supply conditions stabilize.”
WSSC Water will continue receiving shipments of fluoride, but at a lower volume, according to the press release. It added that there is no impact to water quality as a result of the temporary change.
Moreover, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the water treatment facility drawing from the Potomac River, said on Wednesday that its water supply has not yet been affected, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
“Despite reports of local fluoride supply disruptions, the Washington Aqueduct’s water treatment remains unaffected,” Cynthia Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said in a statement provided to the Post. “Drinking water continues to meet all [Environmental Protection Agency] safety standards, and there have been no changes to treatment operations.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in October 2025 that it is moving to restrict the sale of unapproved ingestible fluoride prescription drug products for children.
A WSSC Water spokesperson did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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