Is fluoride in drinking water safe? RFK Jr. says fluoride ‘will disappear’ after election – USA TODAY

Manatee County is preparing to join several other Florida communities that have decided to stop adding fluoride to their drinking water supply since Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issue guidance last year calling for an end to the longstanding tooth decay-prevention practice.

The County Commission capped off discussion with a unanimous 6-0 vote, with one commissioner absent, asking its staff to prepare an ordinance to end the water fluoridation and schedule it for consideration at a future public meeting.

Commissioner Amanda Ballard brought the issue before the board in response to Ladapo’s guidance, unaware that the county’s fluoride treatment system has been broken since 2021. The county’s staff planned to bring replacement costs forward as a budget consideration.

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“We’re at an inflection point, because now we realize that we have an ordinance” mandating water fluoridation, Ballard said. “Are we going to fix this fluoridation system, and are we going to actively say we want to continue adding fluoride to our water?”

Communities in Florida and elsewhere in the country have been confronting that question. Fluoridation skeptics have raised what has been a recurring public health topic over the years, despite the prevailing scientific opinion is that it is safe. In recent months, Winter Haven, Naples, Stuart, Tavares and Port St. Lucie decided to no longer add fluoride in their water.

The matter gained national attention late last year as a growing number of politicians spoke out against fluoride’s use, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services. After Trump’s election in November Kennedy said that he could try to take it out of water supplies nationwide, USA Today reported, adding that in an interview with MSNBC he said “fluoride will disappear.”

A hearing on the nominate was held by the a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday.

To repair or not to repair Manatee County’s fluoride injection system?

The public health issue was front and center at Tuesday’s commission meeting.

Major medical groups, such as the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have endorsed water fluoridation. The federal Centers for Disease Control calls the practice of adding fluoride to tap water systems one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the last century, according to an article by USA Today. 

Last September, a federal court in California ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen regulations for fluoride use in drinking water as result of a lawsuit by the Food & Water Watch, Inc. advocacy group. Two months later, Ladapo issued guidance to Florida municipalities that recommends against the practice.

On Tuesday Deputy County Administrator Evan Pilachowski told commissioners that the system used to inject fluoride into the county’s water supply has been broken since 2021.

The directive to add fluoride to local drinking water is enshrined in an ordinance approved in May 1991, so the county must either replace the system to comply with it or commissioners must formally repeal the ordinance to no longer require fluoride’s use.

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Pilachowski said the county could replace the fluoridation system for about $2 million within a year, but indicated the current location is suboptimal because “it has caused some problems with corrosion for some of our equipment, and it does pose a health risk to our employees.”

He said the project could also be considered for funding as a new capital project to build a chemical feed room to replace and properly isolate the system.

“That is actually how we were proposing to move forward; that’s been our strategy,” Pilachowski said. “That would take probably about three years to complete and about $1.5 million but it would be a superior system.”

Manatee County dentists split on concerns about fluoride in drinking water

Two local dentists who helped sway approval for fluoride’s use in Manatee County drinking water in 1991 returned to the County Commission chambers Tuesday to defend the ordinance they supported nearly 34 years ago. In contrast, another local dentist who spoke Tuesday said she rejects the use of fluoride because of health concerns and instead operates a practice that does not use it for treatment.

Dr. Steve Tinsworth, is a Bradenton-based dentist who has served as a past president of the Manatee Dental Society. He was in the commission chambers on the day the county approved the use of fluoride in the 1990s to address tooth decay. He believes if its use is discontinued the local low income and indigent population could experience a rise in dental health problems.

“The fluoridation that is present is at minimal level, optimal for protecting teeth,” Tinsworth said.

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“You are not going to get the same because you use fluoride toothpaste,” he said. “The population that needs it the most are the underserved in every county that don’t have dental care, don’t have a lot of elements for protection.”

But Manatee-based Martina Mallery, who is certified as a naturopathic dentist, said she once supported using fluoride as a typical part of dental treatment as well. Now she denounces the practice.

“For 10 to 12 years I was putting fluoride in people,” Mallery said. “I had some patients coming up to me saying that fluoride is bad, so ‘please don’t put it on my teeth,’ and I thought they were crazy. Since then I have become a board certified naturopathic dentist.

“The studies against fluoride are absolutely staggering, and I don’t think as a scientist that we should be looking at studies that are strictly positive and painting a rosy picture of fluoride,” she said. “We need to look at the negative. We need to go down that rabbit hole, both of the rabbit holes. I was in that camp where I was promoting fluoride and putting it in little children thinking I was doing the best for them. Now I’m on the other side of that fence.”

Dr. Robert Klement, the other local dentist who also helped bring fluoride to local drinking water in the ’90s, said the practice is similar to adding beneficial substances to other drinks commonly consumed by residents.

“Dental decay is the No. 1 chronic disease,” Klement said. “Adding fluoride to the water is like adding iodine to salt, calcium in milk, Vitamin C in juice to help prevent other chronic diseases.”

“It’s not going to help the middle or upper-middle class,” he said. “Its going to mainly help the low socio-economic groups and the indigent. It decreases the amount of decay, the amount of lost days at school, the amount of lost days at work when they are adults, and keeps them in better health. I recommend to keep fluoride in the local water supply. I feel its a great public health measure.”

Manatee and Sarasota County residents speak out

About 17 Manatee and Sarasota county residents who spoke during the meeting were divided on the matter.

Those concerned about fluoride voiced health concerns, questioning whether they are being overexposed to fluoride because of its presence in water and other substances, and said they preferred that residents autonomy over their fluoride use. Those who supported fluoride’s continued use said critics are ignoring positive health effects and studies, and said the practice has helped curb tooth decay.

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Manatee County resident Michelle Martin said she did not think “it’s the government’s job to do this” and added that the substance affects more than teeth. She characterized fluoride as a chemical waste that is dripped into the drinking water system, and criticized its use in drinking water for leaving skeptics no choice but to consume it.

“Its coming through our skin,” she said. “We’re getting exorbitant amount of the chemical through our skin, through our boiling water, through our food, iced tea, lemon water that we drink.

“If you think that kids need help with teeth, then I would suggest that there is a better way to do that.”

Sarasota County residents were among the list of residents who spoke at the meeting. Sarasota County uses a mix of its groundwater and water purchased from Manatee County and the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority.

“As a resident of Sarasota County I’m coming to you because we do receive water from Manatee,” Sarasota resident Allison Uecker said. “Even though it’s not currently fluorinated, if you are looking at either saving money or saving the IQ of children I would ask that you don’t fix the fluorinated water and look for other alternatives.”