2025 was the most successful year for state legislation in the history of fluoride-free campaigning, and 2026 has the potential to be even better.
Utah and Florida, with a combined population of 26.5 million residents, passed laws banning fluoridation with bi-partisan support, joining Hawaii, which has never allowed fluoridation in public water systems outside of military bases. The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) has also coordinated with organizers and legislators in 25 states to introduce more than 30 bills to either ban fluoridation or reverse statewide mandates.
While it may seem like this success has come suddenly, or as the result of outside forces, that would be inaccurate. Not only is much of this recent awakening due to the lawsuit victory and the National Toxicology Program’s review that FAN petitioned the agency to conduct and kept from being censored by U.S. Health and Human Services leadership, but FAN has been an advocate on this issue at the state level since the early 2000s, when bills attempting to mandate fluoridation were introduced in states like Washington, Hawaii, and New Jersey. Over the past 15 years, we’ve defeated countless attempts to force fluoridation on entire states of people, protecting millions.
In 2012, we were successful in getting New Hampshire to become the first state to pass a law warning residents in fluoridated communities not to reconstitute infant formula with their tap water due to the risk of dental fluorosis. We’ve also defeated numerous bills introduced by the dental lobby to require that communities debating an end to fluoridation mail out pro-fluoridation propaganda to all residents prior to any votes or council decisions on the matter. Almost every year since 2010, we’ve also helped introduce bills banning fluoridation in countless states, though with limited success, but nonetheless have slowly been educating state legislators about this topic for years, influencing where we are today.
FAN Director Stuart Cooper, former board member Katie LaJoie, RN, and FAN Science Director Chris Neurath outside the New Hampshire Legislature
Fundraising Update
Since yesterday, 33 donors have contributed $4,780, bringing our current total to $56,951 from 435 donors. It’s seems unlikely that we’ll achieve our fundraising goal, which is not the ideal outcome during what has been our most successful year to date. But the battle is NOT over, and this shortfall could have a major impact on whether we can continue to maintain our momentum at the local, state, and federal level. That said, we’ve faced an uphill battle for 25 years, so we certainly aren’t giving up now!
ALL DONATIONS DOUBLED – an incredible donor from Florida who has been in this fight since the early 1970s has pledged to match the next $5,000 in donations. We’re grateful for her support and for all of those campaigners who came before us, who were right about this issue 50+ years ago. They deserve to see an end to the madness that is fluoridation.
A big thank you to all who have helped. Your donations will allow our team to recruit more bill sponsors, track legislation, provide educational materials to legislators, refute pro-fluoridation propaganda, engage with journalists covering state politics, to attend hearings and testify before committees, and ensure that we continue to build on the momentum we’ve generated in 2025.
At the moment, our fundraiser has not raised enough for FAN to cover travel costs for our experts to attend state legislative hearings in support of bills in states where we don’t already have local experts available, which includes many of them. Very few, if any, states allow virtual testimony, so having experts at hearings in person to push back against the dental lobby is crucial for our success.
We were also hoping to have the resources necessary to send a member of our team to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) this year, where it’s possible to educate hundreds of legislators from all 50 states about our issue over the course of several days. The American Dental Association always has a table at this event, and our presence would be incredibly influential.
Regardless, we’ll work as hard as possible no matter how the fundraiser goes to support the good bills and defeat the bad bills in a non-partisan and science-based manner, as we always have.
How To Make A Tax-Deductible Donation
- You can make your donation online using either our new secure fundraising page: https://fluoridealert.networkforgood.com/projects/176427-everyday-giving
- Or our original secure fundraising page if your computer you would like to donate via Paypal or if your browser is a bit older: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1415005
- You can also donate by check, payable and addressed to:
Fluoride Action Network
PO Box 85
North Sutton, NH 03260
Two States Ban Fluoridation While More Prepare To Follow
Utah Was The First To Act
In March, the state of Utah made history. It became the first state to pass legislation banning fluoridation for all communities. Soon after FAN’s victory in federal court in September of 2024, the general manager of the largest water supplier for Davis County responded to the ruling by suspending fluoridation to protect public health, despite threats from the state attorney general that doing so could violate state law.
H.B. 81 was then introduced by Representative Stephanie Gricius, who credited the FAN’s victory in federal court as the motivation behind its introduction during House testimony. Legislators also heard testimony from a local teen named Max Widmaier, who described the significant side effects and “medical nightmare” he experienced as a result of the fluoridation chemical overfeed that occurred in Sandy, Utah in 2019.
Legislators in the House and Senate both overwhelmingly passed the bill out of multiple committees and on both floors with bi-partisan support. The bill had 36 sponsors from both the House and Senate. It was recommended for passage by the House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee by a vote of 10-3 with a majority of testifiers in support of the bill. It then passed on the House floor by a vote of 51-19. In the Senate, it was recommended for passage out of committee by a vote of 5-1, then passed on the Senate floor by a 18-8 vote. The legislation was also supported by Governor Spencer Cox who signed and endorsed the bill.
Utah has 484 public water systems, 66 of which added fluoride to their water. Those systems serve roughly 1.6 million people across several counties.The law will took effect on May 7th, and so far all communities have complied, including Salt Lake City.
Florida Became the Second State
On May 15th, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Florida Farm Bill” (Senate Bill 700), which contained a provision prohibiting the practice of water fluoridation throughout the state, a huge step forward for the nation and the biggest victory yet for our entire fluoridation-free movement. In a press conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida is ending fluoridation because, “When you do this in the water supply, you’re taking away a choice of someone who may not want to have overexposure to fluoride.” He said research shows the chemical has serious negative health consequences for children and pregnant women. “We don’t want local governments unilaterally injecting a chemical into the water supply and exposing people to potentially harmful side effects,” he added.
This heroic effort was a collaboration between the state Commissioner of Agriculture, Wilton Simpson, the state Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, M.D., M.P.H., Professor Ashley Malin, local organizers, FAN, and a host of bill sponsors from both the House and Senate. The legislation passed overwhelmingly out of several committees in both legislative bodies before being passed by a bi-partisan vote of 88-27 in the House and a bi-partisan 27-9 vote in the Senate.
How huge was this win? Florida’s population is 23.8 million. It’s the third largest state in the country.
The law took effect on July 1st, and came after a series of victories at the local level led by a remarkable grass roots movement that focused on the fact that fluoridation takes away the right of informed consent of citizens to decide what drugs they choose to ingest. Florida’s efforts received a big boost from the state surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who had publicly called for its prohibition.
In all, 25 city and county water systems in the Sunshine State had already ended the practice since the September 24, 2024 federal court ruling and before the legislature banned it. The largest city to end fluoridation was Miami-Dade County (pop. nearly 2.7 million), whose commission voted 8-4 to over-ride its mayor’s veto. Five of the eight were Republicans, three were Democrats, demonstrating its bipartisan support, also a prominent feature of many of the other local campaigns.
Two States Ends the Promotion of Fluoridation
In June, the Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, signed an executive order requiring the department of health to study the safety of fluoridation and instructing state agencies to immediately stop the promotion of the practice due to the potential health risks. Since his executive order, the state department of Health has removed all mention of fluoridation from their website.
FAN is now working with dentists in Oklahoma to further educate the residents and their elected officials about the dangers of fluoridation. We’re also urging other Governors to follow Stitt’s lead on this issue.
In the state of Iowa, the Department of Natural Resources is now urging communities to end fluoridation. State records and public meeting minutes from municipalities that have ended fluoridation over the past year, have confirmed that the state agency that once endorsed fluoridation has now eliminated its fluoridation grant program and is telling city councilors and water operators to end the use of fluoridation chemicals due to concerns about developmental neurotoxicity.
Legislative Awakening
In 2025, bills were introduced in 18 states to prohibit fluoridation, including Florida and Utah. This is an enormous uptick from any previous year, and FAN staff is busier than ever coordinating with bill sponsors and educating legislative leaders. States include:
1. Florida (Victory)
2. Utah (Victory)
3. Arizona
5. Massachusetts (multiple bills)
6. Pennsylvania (multiple bills)
7. Ohio (multiple bills)
8. Alaska
9. Tennessee
10. Lousiana
11. Hawaii
12. Texas
13. New Hampshire
14. Arkansas
16 .Maine
17. North Dakota
18. North Carolina
19. Montana
In 2025, bills were introduced in 8 states to reverse existing statewide fluoridation mandates:
1. Arkansas
2. Kentucky
3. South Dakota
4. Minnesota
5. Nebraska
6. Mississippi
7. Ohio
8. Georgia
Help Us Maintain This Momentum
This next year, we are preparing for a record number of legislative battles. It doesn’t take an expert to see that the tide has shifted and state legislators have discovered FAN and the truth about fluoridation, giving our side unprecedented momentum going into the 2026 legislative sessions. But we need your help to maintain our progress, especially as we enter this critical phase with an impending appellate court ruling and upcoming fluoridation safety reviews by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Centers for Disease Control.
Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to FAN today.
Thank you,
Stuart Cooper
Executive Director