Tallahassee, Florida – Florida is about to become the second state to prohibit fluoride in public drinking water, about the concerns of dentists and public health defenders who say that mineral is a safe and effective way to protect people of all ages of developing cavities.
Florida legislators gave the final approval of the bill on Tuesday after Utah became The first state To approve a ban last month. The states led by Republicans are following an impulse led by the Secretary of Health of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is implementing the government’s gears To stop fluoroning water.
Florida’s measure is now going to the desk of the Republican governor Ron desantis, whose administration has advocated the fluoration of community water systems, arguing that the high levels could represent a risk to child intellectual development.
Fluoride strengthens teeth by Replace lost minerals during normal wearAccording to the US disease control and prevention centers. UU. The addition of low dotable water fluoride levels is considered among the greatest public health achievements of the last century.
“As dentists, we see the direct consequences that the elimination of fluoride has in our patients and is a true tragedy when the decisions of the political leaders harm children and adults vulnerable in the long term,” Brett Kessler, president of the American Dental Association, said in a statement earlier this month. “Blinding the prohibition of fluorid water harms people, it costs money and will finally damage our economy.”
Although Florida’s bill does not refer specifically to fluoride, it will require the mineral and some other additives to be eliminated from water sources throughout the state, said Bill’s state republican representative Kaylee Tuck.
“Anything that relates to water quality, eliminating contaminants, things like that, we are not touching that,” Tuck said. “It’s anything that has to do with health. So fluoride, vitamins, anything else.”
Some local officials in Florida have already voted to eliminate the mineral from their community water systems, before the impulse of state legislators to prohibit fluoride.
The mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava, said Tuesday that she is “deeply disappointed” for the approval of the bill, adding that he ignores “the overwhelming consensus of dentists, doctors and medical experts and will end a practice that has been in force for decades to protect our health.”
Levine Cava said that ending with fluoration, which is a safe and profitable way to prevent dental decay, will have “lasting health consequences, especially for our most vulnerable families.”
The mayor said the decision should be left in local communities.
Around a third of community water systems, which serves more than 60% of the American population, fluorked their water, according to a 2022 analysis by CDC.
___ Associated Press Freida Frisaro writer at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report. Payne is a member of Associated Press’s body/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a non -profit national service program that places journalists in local writing rooms to inform about undercover issues.
