Utah will be the first state to ban fluoride in drinking water
[March 11, 2025]
By MATTHEW BROWN and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah will become the first state to ban fluoride
in public drinking water, despite widespread opposition from dentists
and national health organizations.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said he would sign legislation that bars
cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their
water systems.
Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals
lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. The addition of low levels of fluoride
to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public
health achievements of the last century.
Government researchers have found that community water fluoridation
prevents about 25% of tooth decay.
“We’ve got tried and true evidence of the safety and efficacy of this
public health initiative,” said American Dental Association President
Brad Kessler, of Denver. Cavities could start emerging in children
within months or years of Utah stopping fluoridation, Kessler said.
The ban comes weeks after federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy
Jr., who has expressed skepticism about water fluoridation, was sworn
into office.
“It's not a bill I care that much about,” Cox added, “but it's a bill I
will sign.”
Utah lawmakers who pushed for a ban said putting fluoride in water was
too expensive. Its Republican sponsor, Rep. Stephanie Gricius,
acknowledged fluoride has benefits, but said it was an issue of
“individual choice” to not have it in the water.
Cox said that like many people in Utah, he grew up and raised his own
children in a community that doesn’t have fluoridated water.
“You would think you would see drastically different outcomes with half
the state not getting it....We haven’t seen that,” Cox said in a weekend
interview with ABC4 in Salt Lake City. “So it’s got to be a really high
bar for me if we’re going to require people to be medicated by their
government.”
More than 200 million people in the U.S., or about 63% of the U.S.
population, receive fluoridated water through community water systems.
Already, some cities across the country have gotten rid of fluoride from
their water, and other municipalities are considering doing the same. A
few months ago, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to regulate fluoride in drinking water because high
levels could pose a risk to kids’ intellectual development.
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 A Utah teenager who urged lawmakers
to pass the bill described suffering a medical emergency when the
fluoride pump in Sandy, Utah, malfunctioned in 2019, releasing an
excessive amount of the mineral into the drinking water. The
fluoride sickened hundreds of residents and led many in Utah to push
for its removal.
It’s rare to find high levels of fluoridation in
water, according to the National Institutes of Health. The agency
said it’s “virtually impossible” to get a toxic dose of fluoride
from water with standard levels of the mineral.
Kessler said the amounts of fluoride added to drinking water are
below levels considered problematic.
“The science proves that it is effective at reducing cavities with
little to no risk of other problems,” he said.
He added that a ban in Utah could have a domino effect with other
legislatures being encouraged to follow suit with fluoride bans in
their states.
Opponents warned it would disproportionately affect low-income
residents who may rely on public drinking water having fluoride as
their only source of preventative dental care. Low-income families
may not be able to afford regular dentist visits or the fluoride
tablets some people buy as a supplement in cities without
fluoridation.
Fluoridation is the most cost-effective way to prevent tooth decay
on a large scale, said Lorna Koci, who chairs the Utah Oral Health
Coalition.
Utah in 2022 ranked 44th in the nation for the percentage of
residents that receive fluoridated water, according to data from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About two in five Utah
residents served by community water systems received fluoridated
water.
Out of the 484 Utah water systems that reported data to the CDC in
2024, only 66 fluoridated their water, an Associated Press analysis
showed. The largest was the state’s biggest city, Salt Lake City.
Rodney Thornell, president of the Utah Dental Association, began
practicing dentistry in a Salt Lake City suburb before the city
added fluoride to its water. His adult patients who grew up locally
continue to get lots of cavities but younger patients who grew up
with fluoride in the water get fewer, he said.
“If we’re going to keep eating sugar, we need fluoride.” Thornell
said, noting that Utah residents consume more than the national
average of candy and sugary drinks.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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