Florida Bans Fluoride From Water System | EUROtoday

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure Thursday prohibiting native governments from including fluoride to their water techniques, making it the second state within the nation after Utah to implement a statewide ban on the mineral.

DeSantis signed the invoice at a public occasion in Dade City, Florida, over the issues of dentists and public well being advocates.

“Yes, use fluoride for your teeth, that’s fine, but forcing it in the water supply is basically forced medication on people,” DeSantis stated Thursday. “They don’t have a choice, you’re taking that away from them.”

State lawmakers authorised the invoice final month, requiring the mineral and another components be faraway from water sources throughout the state. Utah was the primary state to ban fluoride in late March, and its prohibition went into impact final week, whereas Florida’s provision is efficient July 1.

Some native governments in Florida have already voted to take away fluoride from their water, forward of the statewide ban. Earlier this month, Miami-Dade County commissioners voted to override a veto by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and transfer ahead with plans to take away fluoride from the county’s ingesting water.

“Water fluoridation is a safe, effective, and efficient way to maintain dental health in our county – and halting it could have long-lasting health consequences, especially for our most vulnerable families,” Levine Cava stated in a press release defending her veto.

Some Republican-led states have sought to impose bans following a push by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to cease fluoridating water. Earlier this month, DeSantis pledged to signal the invoice and was flanked by the state’s surgeon normal, Joseph Ladapo, who has attracted nationwide scrutiny over his opposition to insurance policies embraced by public well being consultants, together with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Fluoride is a mineral that has been added to ingesting water for generations to strengthen tooth and scale back cavities by changing minerals misplaced throughout regular put on and tear, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low ranges of fluoride to ingesting water has lengthy been thought-about one of many biggest public well being achievements of the final century.

Excess fluoride consumption has been related to streaking or spots on tooth. And research even have traced a hyperlink between extra fluoride and mind improvement.

Payne, who reported from Tallahassee, Florida, is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.