Gov. Kevin Stitt has launched an effort to “Make Oklahoma Healthy Again” with a visit from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
At a rally with Kennedy at the Oklahoma Capitol on June 26, Stitt announced the state would no longer recommend adding fluoride to public water supplies and would reevaluate the use of red food dyes in school and prison food.
Stitt also announced at the event that the state has asked the federal government to approve a plan to keep Oklahomans from buying soda and candy with food stamp benefits.
In a brief speech, Kennedy blamed unhealthy food for a growing epidemic of chronic health conditions in the United States and talked about dwindling sperm counts in American teenage boys and rising rates of autism. But he did not repeat past claims that fluoride in public drinking water is making Americans “stupider” or that autism is caused by an “environmental toxin.”
We reviewed scientific studies and government reports to fact-check some of Kennedy’s claims.
Claim: Girls are reaching puberty six years early.
Kennedy said: “Our girls are reaching puberty six years early, so we have to do something different.”
Fact check: Mostly false
A 2024 study found girls in the U.S. are starting their first period about six months earlier than in the 1950s and 1960s on average. The study found more girls are beginning menstruation before age 9.
Another 2020 study found puberty starting with breast development was beginning earlier around the world, with the earliest onset for U.S. girls between ages 8.8 and 10.3 years old. The study estimates the average age for girls to begin puberty has decreased three months per decade from 1977 to 2013.
Researchers are looking into the connections between puberty beginning earlier and childhood obesity, chemical exposures, sexual abuse, stress and lifestyle factors.
-Peggy Dodd
Claim: There is a link between fluoride in water, even in small amounts, and lower IQ scores.
Kennedy said: “The science is very clear on fluoride, the National Toxicity Program issued a report, a meta-review of all the science on it in August that said there’s a direct inverse correlation between the amount of fluoride in your water and your loss of IQ, so even small increments of fluoride cause loss,” during a June 26 appearance on Fox News with Gov. Stitt.
Fact check: Mixed
It’s true that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s National Toxicity Program found higher levels of fluoride exposure — more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter — are associated with lower IQ in children. But there was insufficient data to determine if the lower level of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter that is now recommended for U.S. community water supplies has adverse effects on children’s IQ.
The review’s finding about lower IQs in children was based primarily on epidemiology studies conducted outside the United States, in countries like Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Mexico where some pregnant women and children received total fluoride exposure amounts higher than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter.
An association indicates a connection between fluoride and lower IQ but does not prove a cause and effect, researchers noted.
“Many substances are healthy and beneficial when taken in small doses but may cause harm at high doses,” the review found. “More research is needed to better understand if there are health risks associated with low fluoride exposures.”
-Brianna Bailey
Claim: Alzheimer’s disease has been reclassified as type three diabetes.
Kennedy said: “Two years ago, they reclassified Alzheimer’s as type three diabetes because of the impact that food is having on our mitochondrial system.”
Fact check: Mostly false
Alzheimer’s has not been reclassified as type three diabetes. Some researchers have suggested that Alzheimer’s could be considered type three diabetes, but it has not been recognized as such by major health organizations such as the World Health Organization, National Institute of Health or the American Diabetes Association.
Studies identifying links between high blood sugar, insulin levels and insulin resistance have increased the term’s popularity.
In an email to The Frontier, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson wrote that Kennedy’s comment reflects an ongoing scientific discussion and that the term type three diabetes is widely used in peer-reviewed medical literature to describe the link between insulin resistance, mitochondrial dysfunction and Alzheimer’s disease.
-Kevin Eagleson
Claim: The fertility and testosterone levels of American teenage boys are declining.
Kennedy said: “Teenage boys today, American boys have half the testosterone of 65-year-old-men, half the sperm count,” during remarks at the Oklahoma Capitol.
Fact check: True
A 2022 study published in Human Reproduction Update found that average sperm counts across the globe declined by more than half between 1973 and 2018.
A 2021 study found that testosterone levels in adolescent and young adult men have declined over the past two decades. Researchers found progressively lower testosterone levels in males with higher body mass indexes.
-Brianna Bailey
Claim: Autism rates are increasing in the United States. Kennedy has previously called autism a “preventable disease” and said he plans to uncover what he called an “environmental toxin” that causes it.
Kennedy said: “In 1970 the largest epidemiological study ever done anywhere was done in the state of Wisconsin, where they looked at 900,000 kids looking for autism, and they knew very well what autism looked like. They found three children in the state. The autism incident rate at that time was point seven per 10,000 so less than one in 10,000 today. Three weeks ago, we released our latest numbers, one in every 31 kids has an autism diagnosis,” during remarks at the Oklahoma Capitol.
Fact check: Mixed
It’s true that rates of people diagnosed with autism are increasing in the United States.
In 2000, one in 150 kids aged eight were diagnosed with autism, but the prevalence had grown to one in 31 by 2022 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But rates varied widely depending on where a child lived and their access to services.
Experts have not agreed about causes of the increased rates or to what extent environmental toxins are responsible. Autism has no identified single cause, according to the Mayo Clinic. Researchers say there may be links between autism and things like maternal health during pregnancy but it’s challenging to say definitively.
Advocacy organizations like Autism Speaks say the increase in diagnoses primarily comes from greater awareness of autism, better screening practices and expanded diagnostic criteria for autism in recent years.
Possible environmental factors linked to autism include advanced parental age, maternal obesity, extreme prematurity and prenatal exposure to air pollution or pesticides, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
“But these factors alone are unlikely to cause autism,” A National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences report says. “Rather, they appear to increase a child’s likelihood for developing autism when combined with genetic factors.”
-Kayla Branch
Rating system:
True: A claim that is backed up by factual evidence
Mostly true: A claim that is mostly true but also contains some inaccurate details
Mixed: A claim that contains a combination of accurate and inaccurate or unproven information
True but misleading: A claim that is factually true but omits critical details or context
Mostly false: A claim that is mostly false but also contains some accurate details False: A claim that has no basis in fact
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