U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has questioned the benefits of adding fluoride to public drinking water.
Now, the idea has taken hold in Ohio.
“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy, who sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2024, said in a post to X.
House Bill 182 would forbid public water systems from adding fluoride to the water supplied by the system. Per current law, systems must add fluoride if the fluoride level is below a certain threshold.
“It just says that individuals can then choose whether they want to ingest it or not — it’s not forced on them,” News Channel 5 Cleveland quoted state Rep. Levi Dean, R-Xenia, as saying. “... It’s just for some people for health reasons or just even for individual freedom reasons, they don’t want the local governments to force this into their drinking water.”
The measure repeals the current law mandating public water systems to fluoridate their water if the natural fluoride content of the supplied water is less than 0.8 milligrams per liter. According to an analysis from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, current Ohio law also requires a system to add fluoride to the water to maintain fluoride content between 0.8 and 1.3 milligrams per liter.
The measure has been referred to the Ohio House Natural Resources Committee.
“Now there appears to be some science that says too much fluoride, including adding fluoride, is bad for folks,” the Ohio Capital Journal quoted Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, as saying when asked about the proposal.
“I’m not a scientist, I’m not a chemist,” Huffman added. “...We’re going to sort of litigate that question… in the legislature here over the next couple of months. I don’t know the answer to your question.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 72.3% of the nation’s population is on community water systems receiving fluoridated water. In Ohio, 92.8% of residents are on such a system, which ranks 10th nationwide.
Ohio’s rate is higher than Pennsylvania's (55.3%), West Virginia's (90.5%), Michigan's (90.8%), and Indiana's (91.5%) but lower than Kentucky's (99.7%).
According to various reports, the Buckeye State isn’t the only state exploring limiting the addition of fluoride to public water systems. Similar measures have surfaced in North Dakota, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Last week, Utah became the first state to ban fluoride in public water systems after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation.
In November 2024, Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo provided guidance against community water fluoridation, citing a neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure. The move has prompted some Sunshine State jurisdictions, such as Miami-Dade County, to either act or propose measures barring fluoride.
Despite the proliferation of anti-fluoride measures, experts say the efforts are misguided.
Aside from much of the nation’s drinking water, fluoride is widely available from multiple sources, including toothpaste, mouthwash and fluoride applications by dental providers. Evidence shows fluoride strengthens teeth, making them more decay-resistant.
“These concerns about risk of fluoride in the water are, I believe, not valid for the amount of fluoride we have in the water,” Bloomberg Law quoted Charlotte Lewis, a physician and professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, as saying.
The American Dental Association concurred.
“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,” CNN quoted American Dental Association President Brett Kessler, a Denver dentist, as saying.
