PORT HURON, MI — The St. Clair County Health Advisory Board voted Wednesday, Oct. 15, to endorse Medical Director Dr. Remington Nevin’s recommendation that the county health department draft regulations prohibiting the addition of fluoride to municipal water systems.
The board voted 5-2 to approve Nevin’s June 17, 2025 memorandum, which calls on Health Officer Elizabeth King to develop local health regulations “to formalize such a prohibition across the county under the broad authorities granted to local health departments under the Public Health Code.”
A second motion to delay action until next month failed 2-5, and the board then voted 5-2 to support Nevin’s new Oct. 15 informational memorandum — a three-page letter he plans to send to municipalities explaining the rationale behind his recommendation and including a fact sheet prepared by the health department.
During the meeting, Nevin read the memorandum aloud:
“While municipal water fluoridation has been associated with reduced tooth decay, recent evidence suggests that the potential risks of this practice outweigh these benefits at current levels,” he said.
He cited findings from the National Toxicology Program and a U.S. District Court decision ordering the Environmental Protection Agency “to regulate fluoride at its current recommended concentrations of 0.7 parts per million as an unreasonable risk to health under the Toxic Substances Control Act.”
“Although EPA is appealing this ruling largely on procedural grounds,” Nevin told the board, “it does not appear the EPA is significantly questioning the science on which this ruling was based. The rationale articulated by the court in its decision is sound and supported by the most robust review of scientific evidence conducted to date.”
Nevin said that while some communities such as Yale have naturally occurring fluoride, his proposed rule would address the intentional addition of the chemical to drinking water.
“The first step is to stop adding the neurotoxicant,” he said. “It’s much easier to just turn off the switch and stop adding fluoride to our municipal water than it is to re-engineer our systems to filter out high levels of fluoride.”
He said recent court findings “give cause for other environmental and public health regulators at state and lower levels … to consider similar actions.”
Nevin emphasized that the larger 46-page packet given to board members was not a new proposal but a set of emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The correspondence, he said, showed prior coordination between state agencies and professional dental groups that had “dissuaded at least one municipality in St. Clair County from exercising its discretion to discontinue fluoridation.”
When a board member asked why the county would regulate city water when it doesn’t own a plant, Nevin said the public-health code gives local departments the power to address hazards that affect residents.
“If a local health department as an environmental regulator does not have the legal authority to regulate a known neurotoxicant in drinking water, then I don’t know what powers we’re supposed to have,” he said.
King said she intends to review the proposal carefully before any rulemaking.
“Can we? Yes,” she said. “But should we? Are there other ways that this is in process and going to get done? That’s something to consider.”
Board member Monica Standel supported including plans to address community dental care if fluoride is discontinued.
“It’s important that we include how we’re going to address fluoride access for everyone, because oral health matters across all ages,” she said.
Board members Stephen Smith, Dawn Fulk, Monica Standel, Carolyn Richards and Leann Clink voted in favor of both motions. Marie Muller and Kevin Watkins opposed them, saying the public should have more opportunity to weigh in.
For now, no changes will occur in St. Clair County’s existing water systems. One vote authorizes Nevin and King to begin developing countywide regulations to prohibit fluoridation, while the other affirms the Health Advisory Board’s support for distributing the explanatory memorandum to municipalities.
Health Advisory Board meetings are held at 9 a.m. on the third Wednesday of each month in the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners Room, 200 Grand River Ave. in Port Huron, and are live streamed on YouTube.
Original article online at: https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/local/2025/10/15/fluoride-levels-water-michigan-st-clair-county-health-board-vote/86708202007/