4 days Ago By Brad Matthews
Utah became the first state to ban fluoridation of public water when Gov. Spencer Cox signed the new law Thursday. The law allows doctors to prescribe fluoride but stops the government from adding it to the water.
The bill takes effect May 7. What’s more, local governments are barred from enacting laws to add fluoride back into the water. The law also requires Utah to create guidelines that doctors can use to decide whether to prescribe fluoride to their patients.
State, county and municipal governments have added fluoride to public drinking water for decades to prevent tooth decay. Currently, less than half of Utah residents who get their water from a community system receive fluoridated water. In 2022, only 43.
6% of Utah community water recipients got fluoridated water according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That percentage left Utah ranked 44th nationwide in fluoridation. Nationwide, more than 200 million Americans get fluoridated water through a community water system according to The Associated Press.
Proponents of the fluoridation ban said it gave a choice to residents. “This bill does not prohibit anybody from taking fluoride in whatever fashion they want. It just disallows people who do not want fluoride from having to consume fluoride in their water,” Utah Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, a Republican and the bill’s floor sponsor, told KSL-TV.
Gov. Cox, a Republican, grew up in a community without fluoridated water and raised his kids in a community without it as well. He has said that public water fluoridation was akin to being “medicated” by the government.
Fluoridation critics also contended that exposure to fluoride before birth and in childhood leads to lower IQ in children. A recent review of studies in the JAMA Pediatrics journal found that fluoride levels in water of 1.5 milligrams per liter or higher correlated with lower IQs in children.
The level recommended by the CDC is 0.7 milligrams per liter. Some community water systems and wells have water with naturally elevated fluoride levels of about 1.
5 milligrams per liter, affecting more than 2.9 million Americans, according to the review of studies. The American Dental Association, however, said that the new bill will lead to higher dental care costs due to the lack of preventative fluoride.
“As we have recently seen in other communities, stopping fluoridation leads to more cavities and higher costs for dental care. On average, every dollar invested in fluoridation saves about $20 in treatment costs,” University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry Associate Dean Dr. Scott Tomar said in an ADA release.
Utah Dental Association Executive Director Val Radmall added that “the increase [in] cost to each household from the inevitable increased dental care needed and the pharmacy costs for those still seeking some fluoridation, were basically ignored. The fact that community water fluoridation was the most cost-effective and most overall effective way to distribute fluoride to those in the community, was basically ignored.” Copyright © 2025 The Washington Times, LLC.
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