By Angie DiMichele South Florida Sun Sentinel
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo issued guidance Friday recommending that communities throughout the state stop adding fluoride to their water supply, citing “neuropsychiatric risk.”
In a post on X Friday afternoon, Ladapo said the naturally-occurring chemical compound “increases the risk of neuropsychiatric disease in children and reduces their IQ.”
Water fluoridation has been a topic of debate in recent months around the country, including in several Florida cities in the past few weeks.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, said earlier this month that Trump’s administration will call for fluoride to be removed from water systems nationwide.
In September, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to further regulate the amount in water due to potential risks.
Fluoride is added to all 27 public water systems in Broward County, according to a list maintained by the Florida Department of Health.
Water is fluoridated in about a third of the water systems in Palm Beach County, according to data maintained by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach are among those that are fluoridated while Boca Raton’s is not.
More than 70% of Floridians who are supplied by community water systems are getting fluoridated water, according to Ladapo’s guidance.
The CDC says that studies continue to show water fluoridation has widely and significantly prevented cavities since it began being added to water supplies in 1945.
The practice has been considered “one of 10 great public health interventions of the 20th century,” according to the agency. The American Dental Association is one of many health organizations that supports the practice and considers it safe.
But Ladapo cited in a news release Friday a “neuropsychiatric risk” from being exposed to fluoride, “particularly in pregnant women and children.”
He linked to studies and reports that say there are risks of ADHD, reduced IQ and cognitive issues in children linked to fluoride exposure, as well as prenatal concerns, sleep, thyroid and bone issues and the possibility of causing girls to enter puberty early.
“It is clear more research is necessary to address safety and efficacy concerns regarding community water fluoridation,” Ladapo wrote in the news release. “The previously considered benefit of community water fluoridation does not outweigh the current known risks, especially for special populations like pregnant women and children.”
But fluoride isn’t just in water. Through the years it became common in toothpaste, mouthwash and other products. And data began to emerge that there could be too much of a good thing: In 2011, officials reported that 2 out of 5 U.S. adolescents had at least mild tooth streaking or spottiness because of too much fluoride.
In 2015, the CDC recommended that communities revisit how much they were putting in the water.
Beginning in 1962, the government recommended a range of 0.7 milligrams per liter for warmer climates where people drink more water to 1.2 milligrams in cooler areas.
The new standard became 0.7 everywhere.
Mark Darmanin, operations director for Broward County Water and Wastewater Services, said the fluoride levels locally are kept at the federally-recommended 0.7 or less. The naturally-occurring level is about .15 to .18, he said.
“There’s a small (contingent) that believes that additional fluoride was harmful, and the research on small amounts of fluoride seem to outweigh the others. So, it’s been recommended for years to fluoridate the water. It seems there’s a shift in philosophy recently,” Darmanin said.
By the late 1980s, most cities in Broward had fluoridated drinking water. Pembroke Pines, Cooper City, Pompano Beach and Deerfield Beach were among the last to consider it.
Ladapo’s guidance cites an August report by the National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, that says there is “moderate confidence” of a connection between high levels of fluoride and lower IQ in children.
That report says it reviewed “total fluoride exposure from all sources,” not just from drinking water, and that there was “insufficient data” about whether the 0.7 level in community water has any negative effect on IQ in children.
Elected officials in Winter Haven, east of Tampa, voted earlier this month to stop fluoridating its water by Jan. 1, 2025, citing RFK Jr.’s stances, according to Axios.
City officials in Naples are also on a path to soon stop the practice, the Naples Daily News reported.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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