After County Ends Drinking Water Fluoridation, Dentists Rally
A longstanding drinking water debate has drawn protests and policy changes in a Florida community, with healthcare workers taking a stand.
When Brevard County officials opted to end drinking water fluoridation in the town of Mims recently, local dentists and national health groups launched a campaign to reignite the practice and keep officials from doing the same in nearby Titusville. As the debate raged, it served as a reminder that this remains one of the most potentially contentious issues in all of the drinking water treatment sector.
“The battle over fluoride in Brevard County’s water shows no signs of ending anytime soon,” Florida Today reported. “Local dentists, backed by national health groups, are mounting a preemptive campaign encouraging the City of Titusville to continue adding fluoride to its drinking water, after the country abruptly halted the practice in Mims.”
Those dentists were successful in encouraging Titusville to continue the practice, according to a follow-up report from Florida Today. But their ongoing battle with the county at large underscores the divisions that this issue creates.
An early May vote in Mims to stop the practice followed a six-minute discussion that did not include public input. In arguing for an end to the fluoridation program, Brevard County Commissioner Chair Rita Pritchett said that, “It raises the risk for high blood pressure, it ages you quicker.”
Since then, pro-fluoridation advocates have weighed in effusively with their perspectives.
“Throughout 75 years of research and practical experience, the overwhelming weight of credible scientific evidence consistently indicates that fluoridation of community water supplies is the single most effective, safe, and cost-effective public health measure to prevent dental decay and repair early tooth decay,” the president of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Andy Brown, wrote in a late May letter to the mayor of Titusville, per News 13.
Local dentists, health experts and representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have all also weighed in supporting fluoridation of drinking water supplies. A Change.org petition arguing for the reinstatement of the fluoridation program has more than 600 signatures at the time of this writing.
To read more about the rules that govern drinking water treatment practices, visit Water Online’s Regulations And Legislation Solutions Center.