Two sweeping bills are moving through Florida’s capitol that would prohibit local governments from adding fluoride to drinking water.
Both bills, HB 651 and SB 700, are wide-ranging, covering a slew of topics from electric vehicle charging stations to mosquito control budgets and concealed weapon carry rules. Neither explicitly use the word fluoride.
The Florida House’s Housing, Agriculture and Tourism Subcommittee approved HB 651 in a vote Tuesday, which bars the “use of any additives included primarily for health-related purposes.” The bill is a Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services agency package, and the range of topics addressed fall under its purview.
And a similar measure, SB 700, prohibits the use of a “water quality additive” for purposes other than contaminants or improving water quality — also excluding anything used for “health-related purposes.”
Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid and Rep. Danny Alvarez, R-Hillsborough County, are sponsoring the House bill. Tuck said after a Tuesday committee meeting that although the legislation doesn’t use the word fluoride, it would prevent its use.
“We’re trying to draw a distinction between clean water and healthy water,” Tuck said.
Keith Truenow, R-Tavares, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is sponsoring the Senate bill. It was unanimously approved by the committee March 11 There are more stops for the bill to be enacted.
“We want to make sure that we give those choices to the parents and the people receiving the fluoride,” Truenow said during the meeting. “So if someone doesn’t want to use the fluoride in the water system, you can’t really opt out.”
The House bill, known colloquially as the “Florida Farm Bill,” is looking to protect “personal health freedoms,” Tuck said. It also aims prevent the mislabeling of plant-based poultry, meat, milk and eggs.
Tuck said a state statute has always prohibited health additives in water, but local governments haven’t followed guidelines.
“Now, we’re making sure that they do follow suit,” Tuck said.
There are a growing number of local governments across the state already considering the removal of fluoride from drinking water. After a heated debate, Hillsborough County voted to keep it in drinking water last month, and in Pinellas County, a Clearwater City Council member began the conversation in February as well.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo released guidance in November that recommended against the use of fluoride in drinking water, and leaders in the state have said the water additive is harming children’s IQs.
Dentists and health experts argue against this. They say the studies Ladapo cited regarding children’s IQs were based on exposures to quantities of fluoride that were larger than the national drinking water standard, which is 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.
Fluoride naturally occurs in water but water fluoridation enables governments to adjust fluoride to the optimal level. And removing fluoride, experts say, could increase rates of tooth decay among children and low-income communities.
Brandon Edmonston, a lobbyist for the Florida Dental Association, spoke at the House panel meeting Tuesday and argued against the constraints on local governments.
“Community water fluoridation is regarded as one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th Century,” Edmonston said. He also spoke against the Senate bill last week and said exterior applications of fluoride, such as with toothpaste or mouthwash, aren’t as effective as fluoride working from the inside out.
Bacterial infections in the teeth can harm the brain and heart if improperly treated, he said.
The House bill needs approval from three more panels before it can go to the full chamber.
Times staff writer Romy Ellenbogen contributed to this report.
Colbi Edmonds is the Tampa Bay regional reporter. Reach her at cedmonds@tampabay.com.
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