Utah is set to become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water.
On Monday, Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, announced that he plans to sign the bill banning fluoride once it reaches his desk.
“It’s not a bill I feel strongly about or care much about, but I will sign it,” Cox told ABC4 Utah. According to the Wall Street Journal, the ban is scheduled to take effect in May.
The decision came shortly after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as the head of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has been vocal about his skepticism toward fluoride’s benefits.
“We don’t need fluoride in our water,” he said on NPR’s Morning Edition. “It’s a poor way to deliver it into our bodies.”
Back in 2015, the U.S. Public Health Service recommended lowering the fluoride level in drinking water to 0.7 milligrams per liter nationwide, as reported by Food & Wine.
Water regulation, however, is managed by local municipalities rather than the federal government. Still, Kennedy told NBC he would encourage communities to remove fluoride.
“I think fluoride will eventually be phased out. I won’t force anyone to remove it, but I’ll provide accurate scientific information to water districts, and I believe fluoride will disappear,” he said.
Despite this, research shows that low levels of fluoride in drinking water have reduced tooth decay by around 25%.
Brad Kessler, president of the American Dental Association of Denver, told the Associated Press that cavities could become more common in children just months after fluoride is removed.
However, Cox argued that about half of Utah already lacks fluoridated water, and there hasn’t been a noticeable difference in dental health between areas with and without fluoride.
“You’d expect to see significant differences, but we haven’t,” Cox told ABC4. “If the government is going to medicate people, the standard for doing so needs to be very high.”
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