Tuesday, April 29`, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 35
NBC: Lawmakers in Florida gave final passage to a bill banning fluoride in public water systems on Tuesday, with the state House voting 88 yay and 27 nay.
SB 700, also known as the Florida Farm Bill, doesn’t mention the word “fluoride,” but would effectively ban the chemical compound by preventing “the use of certain additives in a water system.” The bill now awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature.
If Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signs the bill, Florida will become the second state to ban fluoride from water supplies.
Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox, also a Republican, signed a bill in late March that prohibits any person or government entity from adding the cavity-fighting mineral from the state’s water systems, making it the first state to do so. It will go into effect on May 7.
During a Florida House session Tuesday, lawmakers in support of the bill argued that fluoride does not improve water quality and removing it from water systems could save local governments money. Opponents of the bill argued that everyday Floridians rely on fluoride for dental health.
Major public health groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association and the CDC — which says drinking fluoridated water keeps teeth strong and reduces cavities — support adding the mineral to water.
The anti-fluoridation movement seems to be gaining popularity, especially with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, who has said there is no “systemic advantage” to drinking fluoridated water.
Legislation banning fluoride has circulated in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
Hawaii, which has never mandated water fluoridation, has the “highest prevalence of tooth decay in the United States” among its children, with only 11% of its residents served by a fluoridated community water system, according to a 2015 study done by the health department on third graders throughout the state.
