There's a long-running fight over whether the fluoride in our drinking water is good for us. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called it “an industrial waste” and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has fast-tracked a review of the chemical’s safety for drinking water. And Florida and Utah aren’t waiting — they’ve already banned it from water supplies.

Meanwhile, the American Dental Association is sticking by its recommendation in favor of fluoridated water — and worth noting 98 percent of Illinois residents have that.

We’re not going to settle that debate in the next 15 minutes of the show — and that’s fine, because my next guest wants to move the conversation somewhere else.

Her question is not whether fluoride is safe. Her question is: If Illinois was to take fluoride out of the water supply, is the state ready for what comes next?

Dr. Helen Lee is a pediatric anesthesiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago. And she’s the author of a new policy brief from the Institute of Government and Public Affairs — the University of Illinois System’s in-house think tank.