Florida has become the second state to officially prohibit fluoride in public water.
Governor Ron Desantis signed SB 700 on Thursday, also known as Florida Farm Bill, in law. The bill does not specifically mention the word “fluoride”, but it effectively prohibits the mineral by preventing “the use of certain additives in a water system”. He will come into force on July 1.
“You had this debate, and really Florida also led on this subject, in part because our general surgeon, Joseph Ladapo, really led by going to the counties and saying that forcing fluoride in your water is in fact not good,” said Desantis, a Republican, at a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “Yes, using fluoride for your teeth is good. But forcing it in the water supply is essentially forced drugs on people. They have no choice.”
The governor also signed the SB 56 Thursday, a bill presented by the State Senator Ileana Garcia, a republican, who criminalizes any form of weathering, including the cloud seed, which is used to bring rain to places that need it. Supporters of the meteorological modification argue that it can hinder the impacts of global warming. Garcia passed out during the briefing over last week while discussing the bill, but quickly recovered and continued her remarks.
Desantis said that the fluoridation of water violates “informed consent”. He also said that the mineral had negatively proven pregnant women and children, inviting health professionals, including Ladapo, to talk about the side effects of the mineral.
A study published in 2019 suggested that IQ levels were slightly lower in children whose mothers had higher fluoride measurements in their urine during pregnancy, but his research was far from conclusive.
The governor argued that there are other ways that residents can have access to fluoride if they want and have stressed that the mineral should not be mandated by governments.
“Nothing prevents you from preventing you in your house from adding fluoride to your water,” he said.
Desantis signed the bill to Miami, where mayor Daniella Levine Cava opposed a fluorine ban that the Comté commission adopted last month. NBC South Florida reported that the commission had voted 8-4 in favor of replacing Cava’s veto last week.
Cava, a democrat, openly criticized the plan to ban fluorine in the state.
“I am deeply disappointed by the decision of the Florida legislature to continue the prohibition of water fluoridation on a state level, a decision that does not take into account the crushing consensus of dentists, doctors and medical experts and will put an end to a practice that has been in place for decades to protect our health,” she said in a statement published last month.
Florida follows in the footsteps of UTAH, where Governor Spencer Cox, also a republican, signed a bill at the end of March prohibiting any person or government entity from adding mineral to state water systems, which makes it the first state to do so. He will come into force on Wednesday.
The anti-floridation movement has gained popularity, apparently fueled by the Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who said that fluorinated consumption water has no “systemic advantage”.
The main public health groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, support the addition of fluorine to water, claiming that fluorinated water consumption maintains strong teeth and reduces cavities. All studies have shown that it reduces dental caries by 25%.
The legislation aimed at banning fluorine has circulated in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Wisconsin and North Carolina. Hawaii, who has never forced water fluoridation, has the “highest prevalence of dental cavities in the United States” among its children, with only 11% of its residents served by fluid community water systems, according to a 2015-year student study by the State Health Department.
