Farm bill proposal aims to ban water fluoridation in Florida
By Molly Duerig
February 20, 2025 at 6:00 AM EST
Republican Florida Senator Keith Truenow of Tavares recently filed a bill that, among other things, would enact a statewide ban on the long-recommended public health practice of community water fluoridation.
Dubbed the “Florida Farm Bill” by the state’s agriculture commissioner Wilton Simpson, Senate Bill 700 proposes to address a range of issues including agricultural best management practices, land acquisition by electric utilities and requirements for pest control operators, among other things.
Embedded within the bill is language prohibiting “the use of any additives in a public water system which do not meet the definition of a water quality additive as defined in s. 403.852, or the use of any additives included primarily for health-related purposes.” The bill text defines “water quality additive” as “any chemical or additive which is used in a public water system for the purpose of removing contaminants or increasing water quality,” and states “the term does not include additives used for health-related purposes.”
Fluoride critics brandish American flags at a Melbourne City Council meeting on January 14, 2025, when council members voted 6-1 to stop adding fluoride to drinking water. Since Melbourne supplies drinking water for several other parts of Brevard County, the decision also affects those areas. (2000x1333, AR: 1.5003750937734435)
Community water fluoridation is the act of adjusting fluoride amounts in drinking water to a level recommended for cavity prevention, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a dental health measure relied upon for decades by communities across the United States, and up until recently, water fluoridation critics were fewer and farther between.
But now, the defluoridation movement is gaining momentum on the heels of a federal court decision siding with an anti-fluoridation coalition that originally sued the Environmental Protection Agency back in 2017. The September ruling directs the EPA to reevaluate its current maximum standards for fluoride, and the science informing those standards.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen wrote that fluoride in drinking water, at the levels considered optimal for preventing tooth decay, “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children” — but also that “this finding does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health.”
Last month, the EPA filed an appeal of Chen’s ruling. Meanwhile, in Florida, many communities continue stepping back from fluoride.
RELATED: More Florida communities are pulling back from fluoride. Here’s why
Since November, at least fifteen Florida water systems chose to end fluoridation, including the City of Tavares. But the actual number of impacted communities is larger, because some of those water systems, like the City of Melbourne’s, provide water for other, nearby jurisdictions as well.
With the exception of the City of Winter Haven, all but one of those fifteen decisions followed new fluoridation guidance issued by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo in late November.
At that time, Ladapo said “it is public health malpractice, with the information that we have now, to continue adding fluoride to water systems in Florida.” Although historically Ladapo had supported water fluoridation, he said, he now feels differently, in light of September’s court ruling and the science informing it.
Florida’s legislative session begins March 4.
Dubbed the “Florida Farm Bill” by the state’s agriculture commissioner Wilton Simpson, Senate Bill 700 proposes to address a range of issues including agricultural best management practices, land acquisition by electric utilities and requirements for pest control operators, among other things.
Embedded within the bill is language prohibiting “the use of any additives in a public water system which do not meet the definition of a water quality additive as defined in s. 403.852, or the use of any additives included primarily for health-related purposes.” The bill text defines “water quality additive” as “any chemical or additive which is used in a public water system for the purpose of removing contaminants or increasing water quality,” and states “the term does not include additives used for health-related purposes.”
Fluoride critics brandish American flags at a Melbourne City Council meeting on January 14, 2025, when council members voted 6-1 to stop adding fluoride to drinking water. Since Melbourne supplies drinking water for several other parts of Brevard County, the decision also affects those areas. (2000x1333, AR: 1.5003750937734435)
Community water fluoridation is the act of adjusting fluoride amounts in drinking water to a level recommended for cavity prevention, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a dental health measure relied upon for decades by communities across the United States, and up until recently, water fluoridation critics were fewer and farther between.
But now, the defluoridation movement is gaining momentum on the heels of a federal court decision siding with an anti-fluoridation coalition that originally sued the Environmental Protection Agency back in 2017. The September ruling directs the EPA to reevaluate its current maximum standards for fluoride, and the science informing those standards.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen wrote that fluoride in drinking water, at the levels considered optimal for preventing tooth decay, “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children” — but also that “this finding does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health.”
Last month, the EPA filed an appeal of Chen’s ruling. Meanwhile, in Florida, many communities continue stepping back from fluoride.
RELATED: More Florida communities are pulling back from fluoride. Here’s why
Since November, at least fifteen Florida water systems chose to end fluoridation, including the City of Tavares. But the actual number of impacted communities is larger, because some of those water systems, like the City of Melbourne’s, provide water for other, nearby jurisdictions as well.
With the exception of the City of Winter Haven, all but one of those fifteen decisions followed new fluoridation guidance issued by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo in late November.
At that time, Ladapo said “it is public health malpractice, with the information that we have now, to continue adding fluoride to water systems in Florida.” Although historically Ladapo had supported water fluoridation, he said, he now feels differently, in light of September’s court ruling and the science informing it.
Florida’s legislative session begins March 4.