Hazleton City Authority plans to stop adding fluoride to water.
Fluoride helps prevent cavities and has been an additive in the Hazleton area’s water since the authority opened its treatment plant in 1993.
Now removing fluoridation equipment will make room to expand the plant so it can treat 15 million gallons a day, up from 10 mgd, the authority’s Executive Director Scot Burkhardt said during a board meeting on March 24.
Burkhardt said fewer suppliers are adding fluoride to water around Pennsylvania, and people receive protection for their teeth by using fluoridated toothpaste.
“We talked to several people about it,” he said.
In addition to toothpaste, people can receive fluoride through mouthwashes and varnishes applied by a professional and drinking beverages made with fluoridated water.
“Tooth decay can be expected to increase if water fluoridation in a community is discontinued, even if topical products such as fluoride toothpaste and fluoride mouthrinses are widely used,” the American Dental Association writes in “Fluoridation Facts,” a 2025 ebook.
The book cites a number of studies from around the world in which dental care increased after fluoridation stopped. Tooth decay experience increased 200% among second graders and 70% among fourth graders when Antigo, Wisconsin after adding fluoride to water for 11 years stopped the practice in 1960. The community restarted fluoridation in 1965 because of the deterioration of children’s teeth.
Hazleton is the only municipal system in eight counties of Northeast Pennsylvania to fluoridate water, although around the state 55% of residents have fluoridated water, according to a 2022 study by the University of Pittsburgh Dental School.
Burkhardt wants to stop adding fluoride before it is necessary to order more supplies of the mineral at the authority, which supplies water to about 15,600 customers in Hazleton and 13 surrounding municipalities in Luzerne, Carbon and Schuylkill counties. The authority puts fluoride into the water from the treatment plant that serves its Hazleton division but doesn’t fluoridate water in its Delano-Park Place, Derringer-Fern Glen and Tomhicken divisions.
In 2021, the authority considered ending fluoridation when starting plans to expand the treatment plant, but the board relented.
Now Burkhardt said the authority will work with a consulting engineering firm of Gannett Fleming to discontinue fluoridation.
While Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has opposed fluoride, the U.S. Public Health Service that Kennedy directs still recommends a fluoride concentration of 0.7 milligrams per liter to maximize the chemical’s positive effect on oral health and minimize its potential harms.
Potential harms include dental fluorosis, a spotting or white lacing on enamel, that can result from higher concentrations of fluoride.
Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health says on its website that fluoride has been a safe, protective and cost-effective additive to water supplies for 80 years, is backed by every public health and medical organization and supported by more than 2,000 scientific studies.
Fluoride is a mineral that occurs naturally in some water, and the coalition says adding fluoride to water is similar to adding vitamin D to milk, iodine to salt and calcium to orange juice.
Meanwhile, the authority exited a drought condition and lifted restrictions on water use on March 24.
Customers of the authority will receive notice in their bills that they once again can wash cars and water lawns, but they are reminded that water is a limited resource and they save money by reducing consumption.
Burkhardt said the reservoirs are all full to the brim except for Dreck Creek, which would be full if the Lehigh River wasn’t at flood stage.
Paradoxically, when the river is high opening the authority’s intake in Rockport, Carbon County can damage electrical equipment, Burkhardt said.
Original article online at: https://www.standardspeaker.com/2026/03/24/hazleton-authority-to-stop-adding-fluoride-to-water/