Communities in Florida are banning fluoride from their water. Critics of the practice were bolstered by a recent vague court decision and insufficient science on the practice.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Fluoride has been used for decades in drinking water in many places to help prevent cavities. But now some are questioning that, and Florida has become ground zero for that debate. Molly Duerig with Central Florida Public Media has this report.
MOLLY DUERIG, BYLINE: Community water fluoridation has always had its critics. But generally, those critics were mostly on the fringe – outliers. Things are different now.
JUSTIN HARVEY: We’re just seeing more momentum, I think, than ever.
DUERIG: That’s Justin Harvey, who lives right outside Orlando. Harvey says he’s been trying to get local community leaders to take fluoride concerns seriously for the last seven or eight years, when he started hearing about concerns with the chemical on YouTube.
HARVEY: Before, it was no support. And these days, it’s a little more opened up. I think the post-COVID world has changed that.
DUERIG: Harvey says now he senses a lot less trust in public health agencies, the government. That distrust was in the room at a recent city council meeting in Melbourne, one of the latest cities in Central Florida to reconsider fluoridating water after hearing from fluoride critics like Warren Chris Edwards.
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WARREN CHRIS EDWARDS: I am a practicing dentist of 47 years. The first half of my career, I supported fluoridation. That’s what I was trained with in dental school. And that’s – what, basically, the government told us, the CDC and stuff, was a scam – was a marketing scam.
DUERIG: A harsh critique, inconsistent with research showing water fluoridation reduces the risk of tooth decay. But Edwards and other fluoride critics say a report from the National Institutes of Health validates their concerns. The report analyzed 74 studies, all done outside the United States. Only 22 of the studies were considered high-quality. Of those, most found cognitive impacts or reduced IQ in children were associated with fluoride exposure, but only at a level twice as high as what’s currently recommended for drinking water here.
YOSHITA PATEL HOSKING: So you’re comparing apples to oranges.
DUERIG: That’s Yoshita Patel Hosking, immediate past president of the Florida Academy for Pediatric Dentistry – also a local dentist who spoke at the meeting in support of fluoridation to prevent cavities.
HOSKING: You’re comparing something at a much higher dosage, in this margin of safety that is not safe, to something that is very, very safe.
DUERIG: And the fact fluoride exposures were associated with those cognitive outcomes does not mean the fluoride caused them. The review itself states more studies are needed. Still, the review was enough to convince a federal judge to rule in September that, quote, “fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter – the level presently considered optimal in the United States – poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children.” But the judge also said he can’t say for sure that fluoridated water is harmful to public health. He directed the Environmental Protection Agency to look further into the possibility.
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ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: I think fluoride is on the way out because of that court decision.
DUERIG: That’s President Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaking with NBC News in November.
HARVEY: I think the faster that it goes out, the better.
DUERIG: A couple weeks later, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issued new state guidance on fluoride. Here he is speaking to news reporters.
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JOSEPH LADAPO: It is public health malpractice, with the information that we have now, to continue adding fluoride to water systems in Florida.
DUERIG: Justin Harvey says Ladapo’s new guidance is fueling the movement he’s been a part of for years to de-fluoridate Florida water.
HARVEY: That has just caused a ripple effect. We’ve had commissioners say, if the state is telling me this is public health malpractice, we should at least just pause. Halt.
DUERIG: And that’s what’s been happening all over the Sunshine State in places like Melbourne, where the city council voted six to one to stop fluoridating water. For NPR News, I’m Molly Duerig.
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