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.
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…
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.
Yet another expense lumped onto American citizens that is entirely avoidable
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
Isn’t it great that our teeth aren’t part of our health insurance?
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.
Being able to circumvent their measures doesn’t mean they aren’t actively trying to increase harms for residents.
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.