La. lawmaker drops statewide fluoride ban, still wants voters to weigh in on conspiracy theory

A far-right member of the Louisiana legislature March 18 agreed to drop his push for a statewide ban on water fluoridation and will instead move a stripped-down version allowing local voters to decide if they want to remove the misunderstood mineral.

Under the original version of Houma GOP Sen. Mike Fesi’s SB 4, the only way people in the state could receive fluoride in their drinking water would be if 15% of registered voters in local municipalities or other jurisdictions were to call for a special election to add fluoride.

Democratic state Sen. Gerald Boudreaux of Lafayette ultimately convinced Fesi to change the measure to so that in areas that already have fluoride added to their drinking water, it could only be ended if it was put to a vote by residents served by a specific water system. That vote could be triggered if 15 percent of those residents signed a petition to call a vote.

The bill appears to sunset a 2012 law requiring the state to implement fluoridation in areas of the state with 5,000 water connections. That would go into effect July 1.

During a Senate Health and Welfare Committee hearing, Boudreaux successfully argued the original bill puts an undue burden on people already enjoying the benefits of fluoride.

“You’re taking something away from me — that I have, and that I want — and you’re telling me I gotta come back (to the government), to get back something that I already had?” Boudreaux said.

“A lot of people don’t want (fluoride),” responded Fesi, who also claimed that fluoride has reduced IQ levels and increased use of melatonin.

Though fluoride has been shown to be toxic at high levels, Fesi’s claims are false.

For much of the last 100 years fluoride has been added to some water supplies in the U.S to help prevent tooth decay. The effort, begun in 1945, is one of the most successful public health programs undertaken and is completely safe.

Anti-fluoride claims have their roots during era of antisemitic and anti-communist paranoia of the 1940s and ’50s. At the time, everything from public health measures and unions to Black people demanding equal rights was cast as the work of a shadowy cabal of Jews and communists attempting to undermine the United States.

In the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, a mentally deranged general begins World War III because he believes water fluoridation is part of this plot and is targeting Americans’ “precious bodily fluids.”

At the time, the plot point was viewed as an unrealistic, over-the-top exaggeration of the dangers of Cold War paranoia. Decades later, much of the Republican Party takes the conspiracy theory as facts that inform policies.

Currently, less than half of Louisiana residents’ tap water actually contains added fluoride.

Stripping access to fluoride in public drinking water from the rest of the population could have devastating effects on dental health, health experts warned lawmakers at the committee meeting.

Last year, a similar bill by Fesi passed in the state Senate but was struck down in a House committee.

Dentist Suzanne Fournier told committee members that she had recently treated an 8-year-old child from Mississippi who lived in an area without fluoridation. The child suffered from severe tooth decay and access to dental care, like many children in Louisiana.

“My concern is if we pass this bill, is it will be irresponsible legislation that can have catastrophic results,” she said.

Fournier also tried to correct several misconceptions about fluoride and disputed Fesi’s claims that the mineral is causing low IQ and that “most people are taking melatonin” now because fluoride in drinking water is preventing our brains from producing the sleep-inducing hormone.

“We’re exposed to low levels,” Fournier said, adding that fluoridation is similar to the process of fortifying common household beverages, like orange juices and store-bought milk with essential vitamins to improve health outcomes.

Both Fournier and Angela Adkins, the executive director of the women and children’s policy nonprofit, 10,000 Women Louisiana, pointed out that removing fluoride could also be disastrous for the state’s pocketbook, in addition to overall public health, especially because so many children and families rely on Medicaid.

“You are going to make poor children even sicker. We already know we don’t have appropriate health care in Louisiana,” Adkins said.

Adkins further questioned why Fesi, who has a background in the oil and gas industry, wouldn’t focus on other health issues impacting the state, like soaring rates of cancer linked to the petrochemical industry.

“Why is there no concern for all the other chemicals that chemical plants are dumping in our water?” Adkins said. “Maybe this bill should be amended to include every chemical that harms humans that is found in our water systems in Louisiana, and maybe something should be done about that.”