Arkansas Republicans want to give state residents control over whether to add fluoride to the public water supply.
Four Republicans filed two bills on Wednesday that could remove the state’s mandatory fluoridation of drinking water after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming Trump administration’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has repeatedly expressed concerns about the chemical.
WHAT IS THE DEBATE OVER FLUORIDE IN DRINKING WATER
State Sens. Clint Penzo and Bryan King introduced Senate Bill 2 and Senate Bill 4, which were cosponsored by Reps. Matt Duffield and Aaron Pilkington.
Efforts in Arkansas to give control to local water providers over whether to add fluoride to the public water supply have failed in the past. But as Kennedy looks to overhaul one of the country’s largest health bureaucracies and gains prominence in President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, his concerns about side effects from fluoride appear to be gaining traction across the country.
City commissioners in Winter Haven, Florida, recently cited Kennedy as part of their impetus to remove fluoride from the city’s water supply.
WHAT IS THE DEBATE OVER FLUORIDE IN DRINKING WATER
Meanwhile, a local Arkansas water district has fought for years against the state's mandate requiring water fluoridation. Arkansas's Department of Health has fined the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority, which has 5,000 customers, more than $100,000 for refusing to add fluoride to its water system. The water provider is being penalized $500 per week for defying the state’s mandate.
OMRPWA Board Chairman Andy Anderson told the Eureka Spring Independent that his customers had requested that the chemical be removed from their drinking supply.
“The customers we sell wholesale water to adamantly opposed the mandate and remain opposed to it,” Anderson said. “We’ve got several smaller systems that had fluoride levels above the contaminant levels allowed, and the ADH said they had to do something. So, we banded together to create the OMRPWA in 2009. Then the Arkansas Legislature came along in 2011 and said we would have to start adding fluoride.”
With Republicans holding a supermajority in both the state’s chambers and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) being a close Trump ally who has praised Kennedy, the GOP’s latest efforts to reduce oversight over water fluoridation might have a chance to pass once Arkansas’s legislative session picks up in January.
One of the country’s premier health agencies, the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, has long praised fluoridation of water as safe, touting the “benefits of community water fluoridation as an effective, cost-efficient method for preventing tooth decay and improving overall oral health."
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As some federal studies show high levels of fluoride are linked to lower IQs in children and lowered testosterone levels in men, Kennedy has argued the chemical could have questionable side effects, pointing to a recent California court decision that ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to address potential health risks with fluoride.
He announced earlier this month that Trump would immediately “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water” when he takes office on Jan. 20.