ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Water systems here no longer are required to add fluoride to drinking water, after a unanimous County Commission vote Tuesday repealing a law on the books since 1989.

Fluoridation of drinking water, which has been common in the U.S. since the 1940s and has been considered by some a major public health victory for its impact on dental health, has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, has long been a critic of the practice, and has said he plans to advise all water systems in the country to stop adding fluoride.

In November, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo published guidance on fluoride that included warnings of health risks, particularly for women and children, citing studies that may point to issues including lower IQ scores for children in areas with water fluoridation.

Following that guidance, a number of water systems on the Treasure Coast began to stop adding fluoride.

In December, Port St. Lucie joined that list. City leaders said the move was temporary, in order to prevent harm while the topic was studied more. Last week, staff told the City Council that there are plans to form a taskforce to look at community water fluoridation and provide a recommendation to the councilmembers.

Options include resuming fluoridation and making the temporary pause permanent, but also whether the city should go further than not adding fluoride by filtering out the smaller amount that is naturally present in the water.

Technically, the pause in fluoridation violates the 1989 ordinance, which “required the fluoridation of all water systems within St. Lucie County with a design capacity of 1 million gallons or more.” However, the city staff has indicated the county communicated it would not enforce the ordinance.

County Attorney Dan McIntyre told commissioners Tuesday that the 1989 ordinance applied primarily to Port St. Lucie and the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority, which has said it, too, is looking into whether to continue adding fluoride.

“At the time, the consensus among the scientists and the health departments was that fluoridation of water systems was a good idea,” McIntyre said. “Last year, in November, our state surgeon general announced guidance recommending against community water fluoridation.”

St. Lucie County does not currently produce its own water, and McIntyre said the repeal would put the fluoridation decision in the hands of the water systems themselves.

“From my perspective, repealing the ordinance just allows for those entities to decide for themselves whether fluoridation is appropriate or not,” McIntyre said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has thus far maintained that fluoridation is safe and effective, tracks the percentage of water systems every two years. The 2024 report has yet to be released, but the 2022 report found that about 62.8% of the overall U.S. population receives fluoridated water. When looking just at the population served by larger community water systems, such as those served by Port St. Lucie and FPUA, the percentage rose to about 72.3%.

Original article online at: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/st-lucie-county/2025/01/22/with-water-fluoridation-a-hot-issue-county-now-leaves-it-up-to-systems/77855708007/