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Utah Becomes First US State to Ban Fluoride in Public Water

MAR 28 2025·Updated MAR 30 2025

Story

Above: Pouring a glass of water from a kitchen faucet. Image credit: Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

The Facts

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed legislation on Thursday to make his state the first in the United States to ban the addition of fluoride into public drinking water systems, which will go into effect on May 7.
Deseret News
The Salt Lake Tribune
Entitled "Fluoride Amendments," the House Bill 81, which prohibits fluoride in public water systems and allows a pharmacist to prescribe fluoride, was introduced in January and passed Utah's House of Representatives with a vote of 51-19 and Utah's Senate with a vote of 18-8 last month.
Utah State Legislature
Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that, as of 2022, 98% of Utah residents were on community water systems but only 44% of them received fluoridated water. According to bill sponsor Rep. Stephanie Gricius (R), this comes as only two of the state's 29 counties practice community water fluoridation.
FOX News
The Washington Post
Fluoride is a natural mineral that inhibits or reverses tooth decay and stimulates new bone formation, and the U.S. Public Health Service has recommended its addition to drinking tap water since 1962. However, studies have linked excessive intake of fluoride with dental and skeletal fluorosis as well as with lower IQ in children.
U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements
U.S. National Toxicology Program
This comes weeks after water fluoridation critic Robert F. Kennedy was sworn in as U.S. health secretary, and as a federal judge in California ordered last year for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take regulatory action on fluoride in drinking water after ruling that the CDC-recommended 0.7 milligrams per liter failed to comply with federal standards.
The Associated Press
The Wall Street Journal
According to the CDC, as of 2022, 72% of Americans who get their drinking water from public water systems received fluoridated water, with efforts not following party lines. In recent months, state legislatures in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tennessee have also debated the issue.
The Washington Post
The Wall Street Journal

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The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

The ban on fluoride in Utah is a victory for those in America fighting this obsolete practice that goes against all principles of pharmacology. It's not only that fluoride is an ineffective drug that is already available for individual use in toothpaste, but also that fluoridation is unsafe. No wonder most Western European nations reject this practice.

Fluoride Action Network

Pro-establishment narrative

There's been too much misinformation related to fluoridated water, especially as some members of the Trump administration, such as Health Secretary Kennedy, continue to fuel them. Benefits outweigh risks as there's no evidence of negative effects even above recommended levels — studies against the practice actually failed to pass scientific review.

Scientific American