National politics influenced the recent decision by Madison Utilities to stop adding fluoride to the city’s drinking water, officials said at a public meeting Tuesday night.
The utility’s directors were reluctant to make fluoride-related capital investments while top appointees of President Donald Trump are calling for policy changes, board attorney Woody Sanderson told the audience of about 50. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suggested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stop recommending fluoride be added to public water supplies.
Upgrading MU’s idled Keene water treatment plant, “required very substantial and expensive redesign and capital construction costs to make fluoride injection there, and these issues were occurring at a time when political changes across the country were occurring with respect to injection of fluoride in the public water supply,” Sanderson said.
The Keene plant was built in 1991 and has been idled since 2021, utility officials said. Adding modern fluoride injection capabilities to the Keene plant would incur about $450,000 in additional capital costs, they said.
Given the national conversation on fluoridation, Sanderson said, “any such expenditure would simply be wasted if a ban on fluoride occurs.”
Noting there is no state or local law requiring or prohibiting fluoride, Sanderson said the ultimate decision rests with the water board. Utilities in all the other Big 10 cities fluoridate water, and Huntsville requires it by statute.
U.S. public health officials have recommended since the 1960s that public water supplies contain fluoride to help prevent tooth decay, particularly in children. It is now used in the public drinking water supplied to about 3 out of 4 Americans – a fact that has been hailed as a monumental public health achievement.
Sanderson said the utility has no legal responsibility to rule on public health questions. He also referenced a federal court ruling that directed the Environmental Protection Agency to review potential health concerns over fluoridated water.
Yet Stephen Mitchell, a pediatric dentist and director of the Sparks Clinic at UAB, told AL.com last week that all of the studies considered by the court were conducted overseas, in areas where fluoride levels were up to four times the amount recommended in the United States.
“If you read those studies, inevitably the opening statement will say ‘in levels in excess of the recommended amount,’ ” said Tommy Johnson, the state dental director at the Alabama Department of Public Health.
The public meeting included the most detailed explanation yet given of the buildup to Madison Utility’s March decision to stop fluoridating the water it sells to nearly 19,000 customers in the city and parts of Madison County, effective June 16.
Water Manager David Moore read dozens of questions posed by the public with responses from the water board. He showed dozens of photos of corrosion and other damage in the section of the Keene plant where fluoride was stored.
The issue the board faced, Moore said, is not whether it can make the capital investment at the Keene facility, but “Whether it is wise to make that expenditure … given the trends related to fluoride use and regulation as evidenced by statements from the current administration at EPA and HHS.”
The emphasis on shifting political winds differs from previous explanations given by Madison Utility officials about the move to stop fluoridating. In an April appearance before Madison City Council, Moore said the decision “was made based upon structural problems, degradation, it was made on employee health concerns.”
Of the 24 residents who spoke during the public comment period, 17 voiced opposition to the board’s decision to stop fluoridation.
“This is far too important and complex a public health issue to be decided so quickly by a few people,” said Jim Chamberlain of Madison. “We should continue fluoridating our water until a full review [is] held.”
Chamberlain suggested the science is more clear than Sanderson and other speakers implied and noted no policy change has yet been announced by federal public health agencies.
“We shouldn’t be working on speculation,” he said.
Several speakers asked the board why upkeep and safety are such concerns when so many U.S. public water suppliers routinely inject fluoride.
“Three-quarters of the country fluoridates the water, and they have no issues,” resident Eric Keniuk said. “We blow up explosives and shoot off rockets on [Redstone] Arsenal on a daily basis here, so I’d be confused why we can’t handle the process.”
Several speakers who applauded the board’s actions, including Robert Lemley, said the move to stop fluoridating was in line with the water board’s legal responsibilities.
“I don’t believe it’s the water board’s responsibility to improve public health, other than by providing clean, safe water,” Lemley said. “If you can’t control the dose … and you’re not 100% sure that no one will be negatively affected by it, I think it’s pretty risky to start adding it to the water supply of everyone in the community.”
Time and again, though, speakers called for fluoride to remain, pointing to benefits for children’s dental health.
Marc Masterson presented the board with a letter in support of fluoridation that was signed by himself and every other practicing pediatric dentist in Madison.
Masterson said dentists saw a spike in tooth decay during the COVID era due to changes in dietary habits and less frequent dental interventions. If the board proceeds with its plan, he said, poorer dental health in children, “will not be a temporary thing like COVID was, this will now be the norm.”
Original article online at: https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2025/05/an-alabama-utility-says-chance-of-national-ban-influenced-move-to-cut-fluoride.html