Utah set to ban fluoride from drinking water as nation begins protecting kids from IQ drops

The Utah Senate approved legislation Friday that would prohibit the addition of fluoride to public water systems. The bill, criticized by the American Dental Association and a handful of supposed health experts, is now headed to the desk of Governor Spencer Cox, who has indicated he will sign it into law.

While the Beehive State is now set to become the first in the union to pass such a ban, it is unlikely to be the last.

The fluoridation of public waters has long been a subject of heated debate. Advocates for fluoridation argue that the chemical compound helps prevent cavities and tooth decay and strengthens enamel. Critics, on the other hand, suggest that adding fluoride to the water supply poses an unnecessary risk, referring to the scientific evidence linking exposure at elevated levels to various adverse health effects in humans, such as osteosclerosis, calcification of tendons, endocrine dysfunction, bone deformities, premature menarche in adolescent girls, and problems sleeping.

Chemical defenders were delivered a crushing narrative blow in August when the National Toxicology Program, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released a report admitting that fluoridated water can cause mental retardation in children.

'There is moderate confidence in the scientific evidence that showed an association between higher levels of fluoride and lower IQ in children.'

"Higher estimated fluoride exposures (e.g., as in approximations of exposure such as drinking water fluoride concentrations that exceed the World Health Organization Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality of 1.5 mg/L of fluoride) are consistently associated with lower IQ in children," said the NTP report.

The NTP uses four confidence levels to characterize the strength of scientific evidence that links a particular health outcome with an exposure: high, moderate, low, or very low.

Blaze News previously reported that after evaluating epidemiological studies from multiple countries where some pregnant women, babies, and children were exposed to fluoride at levels exceeding 1.5 milligrams per liter of drinking water, the NTP "concluded there is moderate confidence in the scientific evidence that showed an association between higher levels of fluoride and lower IQ in children."

The report further indicated that as of 2020, roughly 3.5 million Americans were served by water systems containing over 1.1 mg/L of naturally occurring fluoride; around 1.9 million Americans were supplied by systems with over 1.5 mg/L; and 1 million were being supplied with over 2 mg/L of naturally occurring fluoride.

Shortly after the release of the NTP report, a U.S. district judge ruled in a case brought against the Biden Environmental Protection Agency that "fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter — the level presently considered 'optimal' in the United States — poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children."

Hundreds of American cities and counties subsequently halted the addition of fluoride to their water supplies, while some health authorities noted that the risk-reward ratio was unacceptable.

'So it's got to be a really high bar for me if we're going to require people to be medicated by their government.'

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, for instance, released guidance on Nov. 22, recommending against community water fluoridation "due to the neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure."

In his guidance, Ladapo referenced the NTP study as well as a 2017 Mexican study that found prenatal fluoride exposure was associated with lower IQ in boys and girls ages 6 to 12; a 2019 Canadian cross-sectional study that found an association between exposure to fluoridated water and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents; and a 2023 study that found that maternal exposure to fluoridated drinking water at the recommended 0.7 milligrams per liter during pregnancy was linked to decreased child inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility.

Citing the court ruling, U.S. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. noted ahead of Election Day that "fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease."

Lawmakers evidently decided to go the distance in Utah, where the Centers for Disease Control indicated that 43.6% of residents were served by fluoridated community water systems as of December 2022.

State Rep. Stephanie Gricius, the Republican who sponsored the fluoride ban, recently indicated that when a friend and constituent proposed the ban to her two years ago, she told her that "this will never pass." However, Gricius, a self-identified "crunchy mom" — a term often used to describe a parent averse to processed foods, unnecessary medication, and pharmaceutical or governmental overreach — suggested that the constituent persisted in her advocacy for scrapping fluoride, ultimately convincing her to take action.

After working on the legislation and exploring what other states were doing, Gricius noted that Utah Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore (R) reached out to her in late 2024 expressing an interest in collaborating on the issue. Together, they saw the legislation through the state legislature.

The American Dental Association urged the governor in a Feb. 25 letter to veto the legislation, claiming that an end to fluoridated water could mean increased dental disease and related costs.

Cox suggested to KTVX-TV over the weekend that in terms of dental health, there have apparently not been "drastically different outcomes" when comparing Utah counties that have fluoridated waters with those that don't.

"So it's got to be a really high bar for me if we're going to require people to be medicated by their government," said the governor.

"It's not a bill I felt strongly about. It's not a bill I care that much about, but it's a bill I will sign," added Cox.

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