Missouri sees jump in cities questioning fluoride in drinking water

Typically, Department of Natural Resources officials say, one or two communities a year notify the state of their plans to remove the cavity-preventing mineral from their water supplies. So far this year, the agency reports at least seven towns are mulling the idea.

Osage Beach is the latest to consider it. In a social media post last week, Michael Harmison, mayor of the Lake of the Ozarks tourist city of about 5,100 residents, asked for comments about plans there to discontinue the addition of fluoride to the city’s water system, citing the same concerns voiced by U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. about the safety of the mineral.

Harmison said recent statewide bans implemented in Utah and Florida may serve as a model for making the change.

“It can be argued that adding this pharmaceutical to citizens drinking water is in their best interest for proper dental and oral care. What are your thoughts?” he said in the social media post.

Last week, the mayor told television station KRCG that removing the substance has been a longtime goal of his.

“I wanted to do this three years ago, and it just couldn’t happen at the time, but we have a new public works director who’s on board with this, I believe,” the mayor said.

Along with Osage Beach, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says Cabool, Hannibal, Rolla, Sarcoxie, Crane and Louisiana also have considered removing the substance at some point this year. Some of those communities have postponed final votes on the matter amid pushback from residents.

In May, Rolla opted against removing fluoride from its drinking water.

Hannibal Mayor Darrell McCoy said that city’s decision to eliminate fluoride began in a previous administration, which found residents backing the concept by a two-to-one margin.

The Hannibal City Council voted 5-1 in February to discontinue the use of fluoride.

McCoy, who took over in April, said he did not have a position on whether the removal was a good idea.

“I’ve read studies both ways on it. I just believe in letting the people having a choice,” McCoy said Wednesday. “I’m just glad that the process worked.”

However, he added that fluoride continues to be applied to the city’s water supply because it is cheaper to use it up than discard it. The ongoing injections could last for three more months.

“Once the on-hand quantity is out, that’s when it will go into effect,” McCoy said.

Lance Dorsey, chief of compliance and enforcement of the public water section at DNR, said the agency does not take a position on the decision by local communities, which are required to notify the agency if a change in fluoridation levels is sought.

“By statute, we have to remain neutral,” Dorsey said.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is not neutral on the issue.

“Community water fluoridation at a carefully targeted level has been part of the American public health system for 80 years,” spokeswoman Lisa Cox said Wednesday.

The cities debating the matter this year are following in the footsteps of Branson, where aldermen voted in 2023 to remove the substance. The south-central Missouri town of Houston got rid of it in 2018. 

Much of the debate has been fueled by President Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Kennedy as the nation’s top health official.

In April, Kennedy called for an end to federal health recommendations supporting fluoridation. His belief that there are adverse health effects from the use of fluoride was long considered a fringe opinion by conspiracy theorists who said adding it to water was a plot to make people submissive to government power.

Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has called fluoride a “dangerous neurotoxin” and said it has been associated with arthritis, bone breaks and thyroid disease.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which Kennedy now oversees, fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay. St. Louis began adding it to drinking water in the early 1950s.

“Water fluoridation is one of the safest ways we can prevent cavities for children and adults,” the American Dental Association says.

State health officials publish an extensive list of articles and studies advocating for the inclusion of fluoride.

Included in the DHSS information is a link to the results of an investigation into the removal of fluoride from U.S. water systems published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, which determined that the rate of tooth decay would increase by 7.5% and cost an estimated $9.8 billion in added healthcare costs over five years.