A US state has become the first to ban fluoride from public drinking water – going against advice from dentists and other national health organisers.
Republican governor Spencer Cox signed legislation barring cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems – comparing it to being medicated by the government.
Florida, Ohio and South Carolina are considering similar measures, while in New Hampshire, North Dakota and Tennessee, politicians have rejected them.
The American Dental Association slammed the Utah law, saying it showed ‘wanton disregard for the oral health and well-being of their constituents’.
Cavities are the most common chronic childhood disease, the ADA noted, and fluoride helps to strengthen teeth and reduce cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear.
The ban will go into effect on May 7, bringing into the mainstream concerns over fluoridation that for decades were once considered fringe opinions.
It comes weeks after water fluoridation sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as US health secretary.
Kennedy said in November that the administration of Donald Trump would advise water systems nationwide to remove fluoride.
‘As a father and a dentist, it is disheartening to see that a proven, public health policy, which exists for the greater good of an entire community’s oral health, has been dismantled based on distorted pseudoscience,’ the association’s president, Denver dentist Brett Kessler, said in a statement.
Utah politicians also said the ban was a matter of personal health choice and that putting fluoride in water is too expensive.
Last year, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.
Federal officials determined last year ‘with moderate confidence’ that there was a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids.
However, the National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.
The amounts of fluoride that can be added to water based on federal guidelines are below levels considered problematic, Kessler said.
The National Institutes of Health says very high doses of fluoride that can cause sickness are typically the result of rare accidents, such as the unintentional swallowing of fluoride used by dentists’ offices or supplements inappropriately given to children.
The agency says it’s ‘virtually impossible’ to get a toxic dose from fluoride that’s added to water or toothpaste at standard levels.
Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per litre of water. For five decades before that, the recommended upper range was 1.2 milligrams per litre.
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The World Health Organisation has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5 milligrams per litre.
More than 200 million people in the US, or almost two-thirds of the population, receive fluoridated public water.
Fluoride in drinking water can reduce cavities by at least 25% for all age groups, according to the Utah Dental Association.
Opponents of the Utah legislation to limit fluoridation warn it will have a disproportionately negative effect on low-income residents who may rely on fluoridated water as their only source of preventative dental care.
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