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Arkansas lawmakers filed legislation Wednesday to repeal state law requiring fluoride in drinking water and allow local voters to decide whether a community will have fluoride in its water system.
Fluoride became a national topic of discussion in September when a federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to place more regulations on the concentrations of the mineral in drinking water because large amounts of it could impair children’s intellectual development. Dental experts recommend fluoride to prevent tooth decay.
“It should be noted that this finding does not conclude with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health; rather… the Court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury, a risk sufficient to require the EPA to engage with a regulatory response,” U.S. District Judge Edward Chen wrote in the order.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended fluoride concentration in drinking water since 2015 is 0.7mg of fluoride per liter of water, and the World Health Organization recommends a 1.5-mg maximum fluoride concentration.
The American Dental Association responded to Chen’s order by reaffirming its stance that “community water fluoridation is safe and beneficial to oral health.”
However, Arkansas Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, said he had “always believed until recently” that fluoride in water was completely safe until learning about Chen’s ruling and decided it might be necessary to “reevaluate” water fluoridation.
“Maybe I’m wrong on this issue — I’m happy to be proven wrong — but taking everything at face value, I think there is a new amount of skepticism when it comes to public health than in the past,” said Pilkington, a co-sponsor of the bills filed Wednesday.
Sen. Clint Penzo of Springdale and Rep. Matt Duffield of Russellville, both Republicans, are the primary sponsors of the bills and did not respond to requests for comment. Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, is also a co-sponsor.
The two bills come days after Republican President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Democrat-turned-Independent ran for president and endorsed Trump after dropping out of the race,
Trump promised Kennedy a high-ranking health position in his administration before the Nov. 5 election, and Kennedy said on Nov. 2 that the new administration would “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water” on its first day in office. He called fluoride an “industrial waste” that causes a range of diseases, and health experts said his claims were misleading, according to KFF Health News.
The legislation
Senate Bill 2 would delete an entire section of state statute that currently mandates: “The company, corporation, municipality, county, government agency, or other entity that owns or controls a water system shall control the quantity of fluoride in the water so as to maintain a fluoride content established by the Department of Health.”
Current law also requires the State Board of Health to adopt rules for “permissible concentrations of fluoride to be maintained by a water system” and requirements for maintaining those concentrations.
Additionally, Senate Bill 4 would put fluoridation of water systems in the hands of city or county voters. A city governing body or county quorum court would be able to call an election on the matter with a majority vote, or 10% of “the qualified electors in the public water system” would be able to put the matter on the ballot in the system’s service area by signing a petition.
If such an election were to occur, a subsequent election on water fluoridation would not be allowed for at least four more years, according to the bill.
Local governments in several states have already been debating whether to remove fluoride from their water systems in the two months since Chen’s ruling, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
Pilkington said he is not sure if SB2 and SB4 will garner enough support to pass the Legislature but sees the bills as “a starting point” to address “general concern” about fluoride exposure.
Most European countries do not mandate water fluoridation, and Pilkington said their example might be worth following if there’s no evidence of poorer public health outcomes from less fluoride exposure.
He compared the fluoride debate to the one over artificial food dyes, some of which have been found to contain substances that can cause cancer.
“It’s all about a larger discussion, especially in the conservative movement, to say, ‘What are we doing to make sure the products on the shelves are actually good for us?’” Pilkington said.
The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement’s Health Policy Board issued a statement in 2023 supporting required statewide fluoridation of public water systems.
An Arkansas Department of Health spokesperson declined to comment on the legislation, and a representative from the Arkansas State Dental Association was not available for comment Wednesday or Thursday.
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