With Melbourne, Palm Bay councils voting against fluoride, debate moves to Cocoa, Titusville
Adding fluoride to drinking water as a way to prevent dental decay has sparked opposition from some since it was first started in the 1950s. One common belief among early anti-fluoridation advocates was that it was a communist plot to undermine American public health.
But with strong support from the medical community, water providers throughout the country began adding fluoride to their tap water.
More than two-thirds of Americans now have access to fluoridated tap water.
But in recent years, vocal, anti-fluoridation activists have been successful in getting water utilities to stop adding fluoride to water.
The effort already has had an impact on Brevard County.
Pros and cons of fluoridation: How do I know if my city water has fluoride in Florida? Cities that do, don’t fluoridate
With Melbourne and Palm Bay recently deciding to stop adding fluoride to drinking water, the county’s two remaining large utilities — Cocoa and Titusville — could be next.
If they also take the plunge, that would leave just the trace amounts of the mineral nature already adds. Then consumers will have to rely on their toothpaste and other topical fluoride.
“I would prefer that fluoride not be in our water system,” Cocoa City Councilwoman Lorraine Koss said. “I would prefer to get my fluoride topically, rather than ingesting it.”
Also, Titusville Mayor Andrew Connors, who took office in November, would like to reopen public debate on the topic in his city, although he is meeting with resistance from some other City Council members.
Anti-fluoride goes from fringe to mainstream
A topic long deemed fringe conspiracy theory has gone mainstream, bolstered by newer science that questions fluoride’s benefits and risks.
Proponents of fluoridation say it is an easy, inexpensive way to provide fluoride to the public, and that such treatment shouldn’t be available only to those who can afford regular dental visits.
But many opponents point to a report from the National Toxicology Program that linked fluoride and lower IQ in children. That report, however, also said the association did not apply to the levels of fluoride typically found in American water systems.
Those opposed to fluoridation now have support from some high-ranking public officials.
Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, has encouraged localities to stop the practice.
In November, Ladapo announced guidance recommending against community water fluoridation, saying there was a potential neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure.
The American Dental Association pushed back hard against Lapado’s statements.
“It’s disheartening to hear Dr. Ladapo’s misinformed and dangerous comments regarding community water fluoridation,” said Dr. Brett Kessler, president of the American Dental Association. “The ADA believes in the use of proven, evidence-based science when making public policy decisions. For Dr. Ladapo to call community water fluoridation ‘medical malpractice’ and call on all municipalities to end its practice is a dangerous statement that stands to harm the oral and overall health of all Floridians.”
President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long opposed adding fluoride to drinking water, a practice the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lists as among the Top 10 public-health success stories of the past century.
Stopping fluoridation of drinking water also has been bolstered by a recent groundbreaking federal court ruling. On Sept. 24, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the “unreasonable risk” the court concluded that fluoridation of drinking water poses, ruling in favor of the nonprofit Food & Water Watch Inc.
Chen ruled the evidence suggests that the Department of Health and Human Service’s “optimal” level of drinking water fluoridation (0.7 milligrams per liter) poses an “unreasonable risk” of reduced IQ in children.
An unscientific, weeklong online poll by FLORIDA TODAY that asked, “How do you feel about fluoride in your drinking water?” found 68.85% in favor of adding it, 24.04% against and 7.1% indifferent.
Will Cocoa, Brevard’s largest supplier, be next to nix fluoride?
Cocoa, which supplies drinking water to some 300,000 people in Brevard County and east Orange County, adds fluoride to its water.
But some want it all out. So Cocoa could be next to stop adding the mineral to its drinking water.
Koss said she has concerns about bone issues, especially in older women. She cited a Swedish study that found fluoride can increase skeletal fragility in post-menopausal women.
“I just don’t think at this point that there’s enough benefit to the public to outweigh the potential risks,” Koss said.
“I would certainly want more public input,” Koss added. “It would probably be a matter of citizens bringing it forward.”
That’s already happening.
Merritt Island resident Maija Hahn, president of Research & Education for Autistic Children’s Treatment, emailed Cocoa City Council members recently, asking them to pass legislation to stop the city from adding fluoride. In her email, she also attached a proposed resolution that would do just that.
“As a family who consumes Cocoa’s water, we are very concerned about the adverse effects fluoride is doing to our family and our fellow residents,” Hahn wrote. “We have two neurodiverse children who are extremely vulnerable to toxic exposures, and we simply cannot afford reverse osmosis for all of our water.”
Hahn noted that her husband is a dentist, and they previously were pro-fluoride.
But they have since changed their views, after reading medical studies on potential dangers of added fluoride.
Adding fluoride to the public’s drinking water to reduce dental cavities “in itself is a medical intervention,” Hahn told the Cocoa City Council members. “The city is operating as an unlicensed medical provider, and you are mass-medicating your public without informing the public on the potential adverse effects consuming such water may have, nor are you getting the public’s consent.”
But Dr. Yoshita Patel Hosking of Viera Pediatric Dentistry expressed a different viewpoint in her email to the Cocoa City Council members.
“As a resident of Viera, a pediatric dental provider, public health advocate and a mother, I urge you to keep our Cocoa water fluoridated,” Hosking wrote.
“The impact of optimal fluoridation is palpable in our county,” with her young patients who live in areas without fluoridation having a higher cavity rate than other children she sees in her practice, Hosking said. “We as a dental community are doing as much as we can to serve our neighbors. However, we need the help of the City Council to maintain the least expensive way of helping the most vulnerable populations in our cities — children and the elderly.”
Titusville’s mayor pushing for special meeting
Connors, Titusville’s new mayor, says he would like to see the fluoridation issue be the focus of special City Council meeting — including the potential of the city to stop adding fluoride to the city’s drinking water.
“This is going to be a hot-button issue,” Connors said, noting the recent City Council actions in Melbourne and Palm Bay on the topic. “I wanted to just get ahead of it” with a special meeting.
But other Titusville City Council members weren’t as enthused about that idea. They noted that a lengthy council discussion of the issue in 2021, with a number of public speakers, led to no change in the city’s policy of adding fluoride to its water.
“To me, we made our decision, and I’m happy with it,” Titusville City Council Member Jo Lynn Nelson said during the council’s Jan. 14 meeting, adding that she is “not real crazy” about bringing the matter up again for another extended discussion.
Council Member Sarah Stoeckel said she is “on the fence” with the issue of fluoridation, noting the conflicting views about the pros and cons of fluoridation, including in the medical and dental community.
“I’m OK with holding off on it for right now,” Stoeckel said. “It’s not a top priority for me.”
Council Member Megan Moscoso — who, like Connors, joined the five-member council in November — said she would recommend that residents sign up for public comment during a regular City Council meeting if they feel strongly one way or the other on the issue.
But Connors said he thought it would be better to have a special meeting dedicated to the issue of fluoride, rather than discussing it during the middle of a regular City Council meeting, which sometimes run past midnight.
The mayor has the power to call a special meeting, and Connors said he is thinking about doing so on the fluoride issue.
Another option, Connors noted, is for the city to have a non-binding straw poll of residents on the fluoridation issue, which is allowed under the city charter, if the City Council approves placing it on the ballot.
Brevard County government takes lead on fluoride removal
In 2021, at the request of then-Brevard County Commissioner Rita Pritchett, who represented North Brevard, the County Commission voted to stop adding fluoride to the water the county supplies to Mims.
The two private plants the county took over in Barefoot Bay and San Sebastian Woods weren’t adding fluoride to their water when the county took them over, and the county didn’t change that.
Unanimous City Council action in Palm Bay
The Palm Bay City Council in early January voted to abandon efforts to fix the municipal water department’s equipment to allow for resumption of fluoridation of the water Palm Bay provides many of its residents.
The unanimous vote meant residents of Brevard County’s most populous city will not have fluoride added to their city-supplied drinking water in the future.
But fluoride hadn’t been added to the city’s drinking water since 2017, when the fluoridation system at its South Regional Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant became inoperable and was not repaired. The same thing happened a year earlier at Palm Bay’s North Regional Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant.
Still, many residents of Palm Bay were unaware that there has been no fluoride in the city’s water supply since 2017, according to Deputy Mayor Mike Jaffe.
Nonetheless, the city’s yearly reports to water customers show similar levels of fluoride in the water — from natural sources in the groundwater — as was in the city’s water in the years prior to the utility adding fluoride.
City Councilman Chandler Langevin initiated the proposal to reject fluoridation, noting that the move is in line with a recommendation from Ladapo.
Langevin said Palm Bay had been “force-medicating our entire population” by adding fluoride to drinking water prior to 2017.
“And that’s just not right,” Langevin said. “It’s a personal choice. If you want fluoride, go buy fluoride products and use them. If you don’t, don’t. With any other medical decision, the government doesn’t make that for you. You make that for yourself.”
Palm Bay supplies city water to 43,292 customer accounts within the Palm Bay city limit; 275 in Malabar; and 107 in other locations outside of Palm Bay.
Melbourne reverses earlier vote on fluoride
After three hours of impassioned pleas and dueling science among dozens of dentists, in the wee hours of Jan. 15, by a 6-1 vote, the Melbourne City Council decided to stop adding fluoride, immediately, after more than 40 speakers at the marathon meeting.
It was a victory for Mayor Paul Alfrey, who proposed the move against fluoride. A previous effort that Alfrey — then a District 5 City Council member — helped push to stop adding fluoride to Melbourne water failed in November 2019 by a 4-3 vote. But all four supporters of fluoride at the time have since left the City Council, and Alfrey was able to get his proposal through this time.
Melbourne provides drinking water for 168,000 customers, including the city’s own residents, but also for Indialantic, Indian Harbour Beach, Melbourne Beach, Melbourne Village, Palm Shores, Satellite Beach, West Melbourne and unincorporated areas of Brevard County south of the Pineda Causeway.
Alfrey cited the Florida surgeon general’s views as part of his argument for ending the addition of fluoride in the city’s water supply.
Since Ladapo’s statement, several other Florida cities have stopped adding fluoride to their drinking water, including Port St. Lucie, Stuart and Tavares. On Tuesday, St. Lucie County voted to stop requiring local water utilities to add the mineral to drinking water, undoing a 1989 ordinance.
In contrast, the Leesburg City Commission in December voted 3-2 to proceed with previously approved plans to begin adding fluoride to its drinking water, starting next summer.
Alfrey said, following the Melbourne City Council’s vote to stop adding fluroide to its water, he as gotten “a lot of overwhelming support” for the decision.
Jim Waymer is environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at jwaymer@floridatoday.com, or on X at @JWayEnviro.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com, on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
How much fluoride is in my water?
Cocoa
Fluoride levels: 0.13 to 0.19 milligrams per liter (mg/L). Samples taken in January 2023.
Cocoa’s water quality report: www.cocoafl.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15948/2023-Water-Quality-Report
Melbourne
Fluoride levels: 0.74 mg/L. Sample taken in May 2023.
Melbourne’s water quality report: www.melbourneflorida.org/departments/public-works-utilities/water-quality/water-quality-report
Palm Bay
Fluoride levels:
∎ 0.13, 0.18; 0.22 mg/L. Samples taken March 1, 2023.
∎ 0.15: 0.088; 0.25 mg/L. Samples taken March 7, 2017.
∎ 0.642 mg/L. Sample taken in March 2009.
∎ 0.86, 0.51 mg/L. Samples taken in March 2008.
Palm Bay’s water quality report:https://www.palmbayflorida.org/government/city-departments-a-to-e/customer-service/water-quality-report
Brevard County Utilities
∎ San Sebastian Woods: 0.22 mg/L. Samples taken in May 2021.
∎ Mims: 0.49 mg/L. Sample taken in July 2023.
∎ Barefoot Bay: 0.19 mg/L. Sample taken in May 2023.
Brevard’s water quality reports: https://brevardfl.gov/UtilityServices/WaterQuality
Titusville
Fluoride level: 0.57 mg/L. Sample taken in February 2023.
Titusville’s water quality report: https://titusville.com/DocumentCenter/View/4361/2024-Water-Quality-Report-The-Water-We-Drink-2023
