Goodbye to fluoride: “it is disheartening to see that a proven public health policy has been dismantled on the basis of distorted pseudoscience”

Despite a myriad of warnings from both dentists and health experts, the state of Utah has moved to ban fluoride from public drinking water on the basis of “distorted pseudoscience”.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation that now bars cities and communities from adding the mineral, which strengthens teeth and reduces cavities, to their water systems. The lawmakers who pushed for the ban claim that putting fluoride in water was too expensive.

The move comes in the face of noise from various national health organisations that have warned that doing so will lead to medical problems and disproportionately affect low-income communities.

“As a father and a dentist, it is disheartening to see that a proven, public health policy, which exists for the greater good of an entire community’s oral health, has been dismantled based on distorted pseudoscience,” American Dental Association president, Brett Kessler, told CNN.

Following the decision in Utah, lawmakers in Ohio, South Carolina and Florida have followed up with similar proposals that aim to restrict local governments or water system operators from adding fluoride to water. Restrictions on fluoridation in New Hampshire, Tennessee and North Dakota were recently rejected.

CNN report that “more than 200 million people in the U.S., or almost two-thirds of the population, receive fluoridated water through community water" and “fluoridation is considered the most cost-effective way to prevent tooth decay on a large scale".

While very high doses of fluoride can cause sickness, this is “virtually impossible” according to the American Dental Association, who add that the amounts of fluoride added to drinking water are below levels considered problematic.

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