- Ohio lawmakers are considering banning certain food dyes and additives, restricting “forever chemicals,” and allowing local control over water fluoridation.
- These proposals align with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which addresses chronic diseases and food production.
- Similar health-related legislation is gaining traction in other states, including Texas, West Virginia, Utah, and Arizona.
Ohio lawmakers are talking about banning certain food dyes, giving local governments a say on water fluoridation, bringing back the presidential fitness test and other items on the Make America Healthy Again movement’s wish list.
The MAHA movement, led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is a coalition of doctors, environmentalists, vaccine skeptics, moms and others who are focused on chronic diseases, farming and food production.
A bill pending in the Ohio House aims to eliminate certain dyes and additives in foods Ohioans eat and ban intentionally added forever chemicals in a long list of everyday products such as cookware, makeup, carpet and tampons.
And it would weaken a water fluoridation law that has been on the books for 56 years.
Since 1969, Ohio law has required public water systems serving more than 5,000 customers to add fluoride. Studies showed it prevents tooth decay, though some have viewed fluoride added to public water systems as forced medication.
State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, said preventing tooth decay is important given that dental care is out of reach for many without insurance. She asked the bill sponsor, Justin Pizzulli, R-Scioto County, why fluoridation should be permissive when it is effective.
Pizzulli said decisions about what goes into public water should be made at the local level. He noted that there is a childhood obesity problem but putting weight loss drugs into public drinking water would be considered a radical idea.
The bill would also take aim at “cloud seeding,” a process pioneered at McCook Field in Dayton in 1923. It involves flying planes or drones into clouds and releasing chemicals to trigger rain or snow.
It’s a process that some drought-stricken western states have invested in. A federal report from the Government Accountability Office issued in 2024 said nine states are using it while 10 states have banned cloud seeding.
A separate bill calls for bringing back an annual fitness test for school children as way to fight childhood obesity.
The fitness test bill and Pizzulli’s bill are part of a national trend in state legislatures pushing issues on the MAHA agenda.
Texas is looking at bills to bring back exercise for schoolchildren. West Virginia is taking soda out of food stamp programs and outlawing chemical dyes. Utah is removing fluoride from water. Arizona has banned ultra-processed food in public school cafeterias and using food stamps to buy soda.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, which focuses on ending what President Donald Trump’s health secretary calls the “chronic disease epidemic,” is finding success in state capitals as lawmakers and governors take up or oppose health-related measures ranging from vaccine “advisories” to food safety.
Original article online at: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/11/make-america-healthy-again-bills-gain-support-in-ohio-legislature/84067552007/