Utah is poised to grow to be the primary state to ban including fluoride to public ingesting water. A invoice handed by the state’s Republican-led legislature now awaits a signature from the GOP governor.
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Utah is about to grow to be the primary state to ban including fluoride to public ingesting water. A invoice handed by the Republican-led legislature is awaiting a signature from Governor Spencer Cox. This is Sean Higgins of our member station KUER in Salt Lake Metropolis.
SEAN HIGGINS, BYLINE: Fluoride has been used as an additive in ingesting water for many years and is broadly seen as an efficient approach to stop cavities, particularly in communities with out quick access to well being care. However state lawmakers right here level to a September 2024 case, the place a federal choose ordered the Environmental Safety Company to additional regulate the quantity of fluoride in ingesting water. The court docket cited some analysis that publicity to fluoride at twice the really useful degree may be related to decrease IQs in kids. Republican state consultant and invoice sponsor Stephanie Gricius advised her colleagues within the Utah Home of Representatives that that is additionally a problem of bodily autonomy.
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STEPHANIE GRICIUS: There may be additionally that medical freedom part of we’re permitting everybody a alternative of what they put into their our bodies or not.
HIGGINS: Fluoride is of course occurring in lots of water methods throughout the globe. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the American Dental Affiliation suggest water fluoridation. And plenty of dentists agree – fluoride is the simplest technique for stopping tooth decay. That features Rodney Thornell, who’s the president of the Utah Dental Affiliation. He mentioned throughout testimony in January that lawmakers are taking the EPA ruling too far.
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RODNEY THORNELL: As each a dental skilled and anxious citizen, I rise in robust opposition to invoice 81.
HIGGINS: In lots of states, it is as much as native governments to resolve whether or not so as to add fluoride to water. Some Florida communities stopped utilizing it after the state surgeon basic really useful towards it late final 12 months. In Hawaii, the one locations the place fluoride is added to ingesting water is on navy bases, the place federal coverage mandates it.
Fluoride has additionally come below elevated scrutiny because of Division of Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He posted on X final November that considered one of his first acts as an administration official can be to take away the mineral from public water. He hasn’t issued any directives on that but. Below Utah’s ban, anybody who needs to acquire further fluoride can nonetheless achieve this at a pharmacy or dental workplace. Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, says he plans to signal the invoice.
For NPR Information in Salt Lake Metropolis, I am Sean Higgins.
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