Florida on Thursday officially became the second state in the country to ban fluoride from public drinking water, marking a significant win for Medical Freedom groups aligned with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Florida follows Utah, which became the first state to ban fluoride in drinking water in March.
“You should be able to talk to folks, your doctor, your friends, your family, whatever, on any of these issues, and then make an honest judgment about what you think is best for you and your family,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a Thursday news conference in Trilby. “
Forcing this in the water supply is trying to take that away from people who may want to make a different decision, rather than to have this in water.”
Libertarian-leaning Medical Freedom groups, which grew in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, convinced a handful of local boards to stop adding fluoride to drinking water in recent years.
But they received a significant boost from Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo after his formal recommendation against adding fluoride to public water supplies in November.
Ladapo is a close ally of Kennedy, who has referred to fluoride as “toxic waste,” and announced plans in April to ask the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water.
Ladapo, a Harvard-trained clinician, has said he only recently became concerned about the negative impacts of fluoride, about the time Trump announced Kennedy as his pick for HHS secretary.
Ladapo was not at Thursday’s news conference, but he took part in a prerecorded video with DeSantis posted on X late Wednesday, during which they discussed Covid, fluoride, and other medical freedom-related concerns.
“It’s bad for their brains, it’s bad for their intelligence and it’s bad for their behavior,” Ladapo said of fluoride during the video. “It’s just way too risky to just be forcing it on everyone.”
Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city in the world to begin adding fluoride to drinking water in 1945, a practice that was picked up nationwide due to its reported ability to ward off cavities in children.
Scores of dentists and dental advocacy groups warned lawmakers in Florida and Utah against banning fluoride, arguing fluoride in toothpaste is not enough to help teeth as they grow.
“They’re going to tell noble lies,” DeSantis said during the Wednesday video. “They want to make these decisions for other people because they just don’t think they’re not smart enough to make the decision on their own.”
The majority of Florida localities already do not add fluoride to drinking water, but since the most heavily populated areas do use fluoride, the majority of residents drink fluoridated water.
This proportion shifted significantly last week after the county commission in Miami-Dade, the most populated in the state, voted to stop adding fluoride, despite a mayoral override of an earlier vote weeks before.
DeSantis signed FL SB700 (25R) into law, which includes changes requested by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, including stronger protections against companies that promote environmental, social and governance policies.
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The measure, which will take effect July 1, also includes a new ban on the use of health-related water additives to public water supplies.
