A bill to ban the use of the mineral in public water passed the Florida House 88-27. It now awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature.

Lawmakers in Florida gave final passage to a bill to ban fluoride in public water systems Tuesday, with the state House voting 88-27.

SB 700, also known as the Florida Farm Bill, doesn’t mention the word “fluoride,” but it would effectively ban the chemical compound by preventing “the use of certain additives in a water system.” The bill awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature.

If DeSantis, a Republican, signs the bill, Florida will become the second state to ban fluoride from water supplies.

  • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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    46 minutes ago

    How can the bill not say fluoride specifically but mentions “certain additives”. Surely it must list what those certain additives are? Odd.

  • then_three_more@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Yanks love to stereotype Brits as having bad teeth when statically your teeth have more cavities and removals (our dentistry focuses on health over cosmetics). Hopefully shit like this can fully kill that off that stereotype.

  • ryrybang@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Leave Florida if you can. Especially if you have or are expecting children. Moving isn’t always possible, but if you live in Florida know that your state is actively trying to hurt you.

    • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io
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      10 hours ago

      You know who doesn’t need Fluoride in their drinking water? People with dentures.

      Checkmate whipper snappers.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      10 hours ago

      You don’t need municipal water to be fluoridated if you just want your kids to have fluoridation. When I was a kid, we didn’t have fluoridation available in our municipal water, and so my folks got themselves a water cooler and ordered delivery of five gallon bottles of fluoridated water for it. Mom made a point of making milk with it from powdered milk so that everyone got their fluoridation. You can still get those bottles.

      I mean, I’m sure that the great bulk of people aren’t going to do that, and that it’s going to lead to dental problems down the line, but it’s not like an individual can’t get ahold of the water if they want it. Costs more per unit of water volume to have it delivered than to pipe it in, but then, you’re not drinking all that much volume of water, either; most residential water use goes to things other than drinking.

      EDIT: Plus, if you have a water cooler, you also can have chilled water. We didn’t have a powered cooler; ours was just an unpowered, gravity-fed dispenser, but all of the modern-day ones I’ve run into in offices have a chiller.

      https://www.amazon.com/s?k=water+dispenser+cooler

      If I lived in (tropical) Florida, I’d probably want to have chilled water handy…

      • hansolo@lemm.ee
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        2 hours ago

        Done even need that.

        I went to a rural school and every week on Tuesdays we took 10 minute shifts to go rinse our mouths with a fluoride mouth wash. 1 gallon jug with a pump and Dixie cups. Lasted most of a school year.

        • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
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          5 hours ago

          Not to mention infeasible for people already struggling to afford food and other basic necessities. Which means they will struggle to afford the dental care from not being able to afford privatized fluoride.

          Its all a trap to push people in poverty into deeper states of vulnerability, eventually prison, and therefore free labor for the state

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        You’re kinda missing the point. It doesn’t stop at flouride. It doesn’t stop at deregulating manufacturing waste. Nothing in politics is “just one thing” it’s either an up or down trend that continues until people force change.

      • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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        10 hours ago

        Being able to circumvent their measures doesn’t mean they aren’t actively trying to increase harms for residents.

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        You don’t leave Florida because you want flouride in your water. You leave Florida because it’s the type of state that would ban flouride in the water.

  • Wahots@pawb.social
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    11 hours ago

    Ban chlorine and chloramine in the water too! The microorganisms will strengthen your immune system. Just like Haiti. :)

    • TheMightyCat@lemm.ee
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      9 hours ago

      Unironcally yes, it shouldn’t take much convincing that a substance as dangerous as chlorine infamously known for being used as a chemical weapon shouldn’t be in drinking water when UV sterilization exists and is proven.

      • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        a substance as dangerous as chlorine

        Water is often said to be the “element of life”, and we need oxygen to live. But if you add one oxygen atom to a water molecule you end up with H2O2, or hydrogen peroxide, which is deadly.

        This is the thing that the majority of people don’t understand about chemistry. Just because one chemical (water is a chemical, btw) has the same word in its name as another chemical that’s known to be highly toxic doesn’t mean they’re both toxic.

        Chemistry is insanely complex and we are entirely unable to evaluate the toxicity of a chemical just by its name (without prior knowledge).

      • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        43 minutes ago

        Man, just wait until you hear about this awful chemical called dihydrogen monoxide. It’s used as an industrial solvent, cleaning agent, and all other kinds of destructive things, and they put it in your food! This shit can kill you if you breathe in too much, yet they put it in our food?!?!1?1

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        4 hours ago

        Does your tap have a UV light in it, or do you think there’s no possibility of bacterial growth between the water processing plant and your house?

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        9 hours ago

        You think chlorine is mostly known for being used as a chemical weapon? Not, you know… Swimming pools?

        You’re a good example of why people make bad choices about science related public policy.
        First, the poison is in the dose. There’s a big difference between inhaling concentrated chlorine gas and drinking trace quantities.
        Second, how do you propose we uv sterilize the water? We’d need to do so at the plant, but also at any holding cisterns. Or were you thinking of retrofit for houses? And not all microorganisms are strongly impacted by UV. It’s tricky to find legitimate research, since the people who sell them say they work great, but what’s out there paints a different picture of efficacy.

        • TheMightyCat@lemm.ee
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          8 hours ago

          I already edited it to infamously anyways thats what comes to my mind at first when i think of chlorine.

          And how would i propose we do this? By living in a country that already does it. Here is the page of my local water provider:

          https://www.evides.nl/uw-drinkwater/productieproces/de-zuiveringsprocessen

          Daarna maken we het water bacteriologisch betrouwbaar: de hoofddesinfectie. Dit gebeurt door middel van ultraviolet licht (UV).

          Then we make the water bacteriologically reliable: the main disinfection. This is done by means of ultraviolet light (UV).

          So on whatever way the Netherlands does it seems to work out.

          Being used to this type of water when i go on vacation it really smells like im drinking swimming pool water.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        mustard gas is not the same as chlorinated water, or even bleach and ammonia. its a different compound.

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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          1 hour ago

          Chlorine gas was actually used in world war 1. It’s still a massive stretch to invoke that in relation to water treatment.

          It’s like invoking water boarding to say we shouldn’t have a water supply.

  • toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Don’t worry, y’all, they’re probably gonna make lead pipes great again, too!

    edit - that way, you can all look and act like wild bill from the green mile! isn’t that GREAT?

  • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    So if they don’t use the word “fluoride,” does that mean the purpose is that the bill is open to interpretation depending on what they politically need at the time?

    Or will the Republicans pass this bill and claim victory, but will actually just leave fluoride in the water?