Fluoride opt-out bill advances from House

Fluoride opt-out bill advances from House February 26, 2024

Cutline: Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, watches as Kentucky House members vote on House Bill 16 on the House floor on Wednesday. HB 16 would allow local water districts to opt-out of water fluoridation. A high-res version can be found here. A high-res version is available here.

FRANKFORT —The Kentucky House of Representatives approved a bill Wednesday that would allow local water districts to remove fluoride from the water supply.

Sponsored by Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, House Bill 16 does not ban fluoride, but makes it optional.

“House Bill 16 removes the unfunded state mandate on water producers that requires fluoride to be added to water after the water is treated and cleaned for consumption,” Hart said.

Rep. William Lawrence, R-Maysville, is a co-sponsor of the legislation. He has experience working in a wastewater and water treatment facility and spoke on his personal experience with the chemical on the House floor.

“Fluoride in water is an unfunded state mandate and forced medication,” he said. “… I’m telling you from a personal stance, it’s dangerous stuff. I don’t allow my children to drink tap water. Their teeth are fine.”

Lawrence said despite Kentucky mandating water fluoridation, Kentucky is still 48th in the nation when it comes to dental health.

“It’s not working. We need to do something else,” he said.

Several other lawmakers, however, said they believe fluoride is beneficial to oral health.

Rep. Adam Moore, D-Lexington, said he would be thinking about children who cannot care for their own teeth when voting “no” on HB 16. His mother-in-law, who is a physician, told him children can struggle with sleep apnea, chronic jaw pain and diabetes later in life due to poor dental health.

“I very much see the need for local control and decisions like these to be made locally,” Moore said. “At the same time, I know that we have an obligation to be looking out for the people who sent us here, especially our children.”

Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, said she also foresees Kentuckians, especially children, may have more costly dental health issues if fluoride is removed from the water.

“We were all elected by our constituents to be watchdogs of our taxpayers’ money, and $1.9 million, which is a low estimate of what this bill could cost Medicaid and our tax payers, is a lot of money,” she said.

Marzian filed a floor amendment to require local water districts to reimburse the Department for Medicaid Services for utilization costs of Medicaid-covered dental services. The amendment was not adopted.

Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, joined Moore and Marzian in speaking against allowing fluoride to be optional. She said adding small amounts of fluoride to drinking water for the last 75 years has “dramatically improved dental health.”

She also said those who do not want to use or consume fluoride, do not have to.

“Thanks to science, individuals can utilize a reverse osmosis filter or a distillation filter,” Camuel said. “Those filters remove up to 92% of fluoride from tap water.”

Another co-sponsor of HB 16, Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, said he is also concerned about fluoride’s impact on health, but he agrees with Lawrence. He said he’s read research that shows fluoride is a neurotoxin that can reduce IQ, weaken bones and cause thyroid issues, among other health problems.

Dotson also said fluoride can cost local governments up to $600,000 a year, and most of the fluoridated water ends up going down the drain.

“We are mass medicating without informed consent or a right to refuse…. It’s wasteful, with little to no efficacy at all,” Dotson said.

The House approved HB 16 by a 68-29 vote. The legislation now heads to the Senate for consideration.

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https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/publicservices/pio/release.html#HB16022625