Fluoride Watch
By Mary Budinger / February 24, 2025, Updated April 3, 2025
Utah is the first state to ban adding fluoride in public water systems. On March 27, Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) signed legislation preventing people or government entities from adding fluoride to water systems in the state, effective May 7.
Arizona does not have a bill in the legislature at this time regarding fluoridation. About 58% of Arizona’s population receives artificially fluoridated water. That includes those who live in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Carefree, El Mirage, and Yuma. Cities that do not fluoridate include Scottsdale, Tempe, Paradise Valley, Cave Creek, Goodyear, Tucson, Flagstaff, Bisbee, Kingman, Globe, Hayden, Miami, Payson, Cottonwood, Jerome, and Prescott Valley.
The issue of adding fluoride to municipal water systems has been a matter of serious legal wrangling for years. No one argues that above certain amounts, fluoride can lead to bone disease and tooth staining. But the concern that fluoride has negative cognitive effects in young children – that science has been politically difficult to nail down; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not wanted to act. 
Last August, a groundbreaking report by the government’s National Toxicology Program (a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) found with moderate confidence that fluoride exposure is associated with lowered child IQ at levels of 1.5 milligrams per liter (mg/L) – only twice the currently recommended 0.7 mg/L level of water fluoridation in the U.S.
Last September, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen made a landmark ruling that U.S. water fluoridation at current levels poses an “unreasonable risk” of reducing IQ in children. Chen said there is not a sufficient margin of safety between the level at which fluoride is known to be toxic, or the hazard level, and the currently recommended exposure level. Thus the EPA can no longer ignore that risk, and must take regulatory action. The EPA is appealing.
Nonetheless, Chen’s verdict delivered a major blow to the EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and professional lobbying groups like the American Dental Association which have staked their reputations on the claim that water fluoridation is one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.
FLUORIDE’S TOXICITY
Water fluoridation has been controversial since the beginning because fluoride is recognized as a highly reactive neurotoxin and a potent cellular poison linked to more than decreased mental IQ. Fluoride is an endocrine disruptor with significant effects on thyroid and parathyroid hormone function; it was used up until the 1970s as a thyroid-suppressing medication. The chemical is also linked to brittle bones, lowered immunity, and cancer.
Fluoride was regarded as an environmental pollutant before 1945. At that time, fluoride was responsible for many lawsuits against the aluminum industry and the phosphate fertilizer industry. The fluoride compound added to city drinking water is not the pharmaceutical grade fluoride in toothpaste and mouthwash. It is a man-made hexafluorosilicic acid. It is an industrial waste product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, sourced from the wet scrubbing systems of the phosphate fertilizer industry in Florida, or from China. It is laced with contaminants such as arsenic (a known cancer-causing agent), mercury and lead (both of which are neurotoxic and especially harmful to children).
An editorial published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, October 1, 1944, stated:
“Drinking water containing as little as 1.2 ppm fluoride will cause developmental disturbances. We cannot afford the risk of producing such serious systemic disturbances in applying what is at present a doubtful procedure intended to prevent development of dental disfigurements. The potentialities for harm outweigh those for good.”
When fluoride is put in the municipal water supply, we call that a “systemic” application, meaning the chemical circulates throughout the entire body, from the brain and teeth all the way through the glands and bones, down to the toes. Yet many studies, including one by the government’s National Research Council, have found that “the major anticaries benefit of fluoride is topical and not systemic.” And the benefit only begins when teeth begin erupting.
When fluoride is put in the water, it is impossible to control the dose each individual receives because people drink different amounts of water. According to the NIH, approximately 80% of orally ingested fluoride is absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. In adults, about 50% of absorbed fluoride is retained in the body, most stored in bones and teeth. The other 50% is excreted in urine. In young children, up to 80% of absorbed fluoride is retained because more is taken up by bones and teeth than in adults.
Studies have found that fluoride crosses the placenta and shows up in mothers’ milk.
In January 2025, a new meta-analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics found that the more fluoride pregnant women and young children are exposed to, the greater the decrease in a child’s IQ.
OTHER SOURCES OF FLUORIDE
Some say water fluoridation is not so important anymore. Children can readily get fluoride in toothpaste and mouthwash. These products are more widely available now than they were in 1945 when water fluoridation began in the U.S.
Depending upon the manufacturers’ water source, juice, drinking sodas, and bottled water may also contain fluoride. Evian Natural Spring water was found to contain 0.08 ppm, and Gerber Spring Water had 0.71 ppm. Black, green, oolong and white teas can also be naturally high in fluoride. In the field, fruits, vegetables, and grains are often grown with fluoridated water. Food processing tends to concentrate fluoride; a study found that cereals processed in a fluoridated area had fluoride concentrations ranging from 3.8 ppm to 6.3 ppm.
Teflon is coated with fluoride. Fluoride is also in drugs, especially anti-depressants. according to a 2003 study.
Fluoride is an abundant element found in nature. It is a mineral that exists naturally in the air and in soil, in groundwater, lakes, oceans, and even tea leaves. A typical cup of black tea contains fluoride at a concentration of 2.5 milligrams per liter. A liter of ocean water contains around 1.2 mg of fluoride.
Some areas within Arizona have naturally occurring fluoride at levels that meet or are close to the federally recommended level of 0.7 mg/l without adding fluoride. The cities of Gila Bend and Kingman are examples of this.
Critics of fluoridation like to point out that most Western European countries do not fluoridate their water. But that is not always a fair comparison because some countries provide fluoride in other ways. An estimated 300 million people worldwide consume fluoridated salt, for example, and another 1.5 million children globally consume fluoridated milk.
It is well substantiated that sugar feeds bacteria in the mouth. To avoid cavities, infants should not be given bottles of sugary juice and toddlers and older should not be exposed to sodas and chocolate milk.
OTHER CITIES MAKE MOVES
The decision to add fluoride to water is typically made at the local level.
The national average for municipal water fluoridation is 72.3%, according to the CDC, but there is a wide range. The public water supply is 100% fluoridated in Washington, D.C., while in New Jersey it is just 16%.
Judge Chen’s September 2024 ruling prompted some communities to make the switch. Abilene, Texas, and Winterhaven, Florida, announced they would stop fluoridating. Two municipalities in New York state, Yorktown and Somers, also suspended fluoridation. “I have decided to suspend water fluoridation as a precautionary measure,” said Yorktown Supervisor Ed Lachterman. “Our priority is the safety and well-being of our community, and we believe it is prudent to pause fluoridation to further assess its potential impacts.”
The supervisor of Somers said, “Removing fluoride from Somers’ drinking water would give residents the freedom to choose their own sources of fluoride, ensuring personal control over their health decisions.”
Bills this legislative season asking for a full ban were introduced in North Dakota, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.
Since 2023, towns in North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas decided to stop the practice. Much of Wisconsin has stopped. The largest city the country to stop fluoridation is Portland, Oregon, which likes to boast of their pristine waters from the Bull Run watershed.
OPINIONS ARE CHANGING
Consider Dr. Lena Wen’s column in The Washington Post of November 14, 2024 – “ When I delved into the research, I was shocked: The data clearly indicates that conventional wisdom needs to be revisited. The benefit of continuing to fluoridate drinking water is unclear given the widespread availability of fluoride-containing toothpaste. In addition, emerging research raises concerns for fluoride’s negative impacts on developing brains. The studies demonstrating fluoride’s impacts are well-conducted, peer-reviewed and published in prestigious journals such as JAMA … All of this led me to conclude that it’s not the worst thing if water fluoridation were to end in the United States. This was not an easy decision to reach. It went against my preconceptions and, frankly, I felt very uncomfortable disagreeing with major medical associations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association, which continue to affirm the safety of community water fluoridation.”
Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo November 22, 2024 – He issued new guidance for the state advising against adding fluoride to public drinking water. He said that medical school taught him to support fluoridation as a public health measure. But the toxicology report and Judge Chen’s ruling made him take another look at the issue, and he admitted he was appalled by the findings. “We can strengthen teeth without consuming this neurotoxin.”
As Winterhaven, Florida, Commissioner Brad Dantzler said, “Mr. Kennedy [Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services] has made it well known and publicly stated he wants fluoride out of the water across the entire country. We might be on the front end, but this issue is coming.”
RESOURCES
The National Sanitation Foundation database lists reverse osmosis water treatment systems that have been certified to reduce fluoride levels.
Fluoride Action Network’s video “Fluoride Fundamentals #4” explains the hexafluorosilicic acid added as fluoride to muni water systems.
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/search-by-state.php
Mary Budinger is an Emmy award-winning journalist and a certified nutritional therapist practitioner (NTP). She lives in Phoenix, AZ, and writes about functional medicine and nutrition.