Party identification and public attitudes toward raw milk, water fluoridation, and acetaminophen use.

BACKGROUND

Fluoridation of drinking water, milk pasteurization, and acetaminophen use in pregnancy have become highly visible and controversial public health issues.

METHODS

In September and October 2025, we fielded a national survey to examine the beliefs about and support for policies regulating water fluoridation, raw milk, and acetaminophen use in the United States. We used descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression to analyze the data.

RESULTS

We found that about half of the participants believed fluoridated tap water was safe to drink, that raw milk was not as safe to drink as pasteurized milk, and that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy did not cause autism. About a third of respondents reported that water fluoridation should be banned, sale of raw milk should be liberalized, and that the government should issue new guidelines against the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy. Logistic regression analysis showed that people with lower confidence in scientists and self-identified Republicans were more likely to hold beliefs and policy positions that diverged from general scientific consensus.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, we found that a large part of society has embraced beliefs and policy positions not based on general scientific consensus, and that all three issues we examined have become deeply politicized.