Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill prohibiting local communities from adding fluoride to drinking water, making the Sunshine State the second in the nation after Utah to enact such a measure.
The GOP-led Florida Legislature passed the measure April 29 as part of a broader agriculture bill. Although fluoride isn't specifically mentioned, the measure — which takes effect July 1 — does prohibit the use of "certain additives in a water system which do not meet specified requirements." It defines additives as "any chemical, additive, or substance that is used in a public water system for the purpose of meeting or surpassing primary or secondary drinking water standards; preventing, reducing, or removing contaminants; or improving water quality."
"It's forced medication when they're jamming fluoride into your water supply," DeSantis said during a news conference in Miami. "And they did it because if you have fluoride, it will help with dental. And I'm not saying that's not true, but we have other ways where people can get access to fluoride. When you do this in the water supply, you're taking away a choice of someone who may not want to have overexposure to fluoride."
Florida and Utah are following a push by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remove the chemical compound from public drinking water. Several Florida communities had enacted measures to end water fluoridation, including Miami-Dade County, although its Democrat mayor, Levine Cava, vetoed that decision last month. Earlier Tuesday, the county commissioners overrode her veto.
In November, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo recommended that cities and communities statewide stop fluoridating their drinking water because of the "neuropsychiatric risk" associated with exposure to the chemical compound and "the wide availability of alternative sources of fluoride for dental health."
Decisions on the use of fluoride in drinking water rest squarely with states and local communities. In 1962, federal drinking water standards were updated to include fluoride guidelines with recommended and maximum levels, according to a timeline by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The optimal fluoride concentration ranged from 0.7 ppm (parts per million) to 1.2 ppm, contingent on the local climate. More than 200 million Americans, or about 75% of the population, drink fluoridated water.
Kennedy said during last week's Cabinet meeting that he is working with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to change nationwide recommendations for adding fluoride in public drinking water.
"Fluoridation is like, I think of Charlie Brown and the little guy who holds his blanket [Linus]," Ladapo said during the news conference. "But unfortunately, he is a kid, but what we have instead, we have professionals, doctors, dentists, public health leaders who are holding on to fluoridation like that blanket.
"It doesn't matter what the evidence shows — whatever the studies show about potential harms in children and pregnant women and who knows about the rest of us — they're just holding on to it. And it's OK when you're a kid, but we're adults. We're grown-up. We're responsible for the lives of other people, and we need to make good decisions. It's really cute when you're a kid, but you can't hold onto that blanket when you're a grown-up."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.