MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade commissioners voted to stop adding fluoride to the county’s tap water on Tuesday after the state’s surgeon general addressed them during the public meeting.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava did not announce if she has decided whether or not she will veto the legislation.
6 p.m. report:
“Miami-Dade County has been adding fluoride to the water for 60 years. It has been constantly verified, scientifically and medically, that it is safe. We know that it provides protection for dental care and prevents cavities. We use a very, very low level, well within the guidelines,” Levine Cava said before the meeting.
Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez sponsored the resolution after siding with Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who was at the meeting.
“Water fluoridation began in 1945 and was adopted in Miami-Dade in 1958. At that time, cigarettes were still being marketed as good for your lungs,” Gonzalez, of District 11, said while he introduced the item during the meeting.
Kionne L. McGhee, the commission’s vice chairman, seconded Gonzalez’s item and introduced Ladapo to speak before the commission.
“If you as the leaders of this community make the decision to continue adding fluoride to water here, you have to believe one of two things,” Ladapo said. “You either have to believe that all of those studies are wrong, or you have to believe that you are comfortable potentially harming some people in your community.”
Ladapo and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, have been recommending its removal from the public water supplies.
Levine Cava was also at the meeting next to Roy Coley, the director of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department. She appointed him in April 2021.
“You can depend on our water. We don’t claim to be the owners of the science of the wisdom of fluoridation. We are experts in water treatment and water treatment technology and we follow the guidance that we receive,” Coley told commissioners during the meeting.
Coley also said the guidance that recommends fluoridation comes from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Water Works Association, and the American Dental Association.
“We don’t claim to supplant their professional judgment for ours,” Coley said.
Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would support a statewide ban and compared water fluoridation to “forced medicine.” HHS had previously recommended .7 milligrams of fluoride per liter in community water systems to prevent dental decay.
“Science evolves. In 2015, the [Environmental Protection Agency] under President Barack Obama lowered its recommendation for fluoride,” Gonzalez said.
The HHS also reported there were concerns that some pregnant women and children “may be getting more fluoride than they need” because of extra exposure from toothpaste, floss, mouthwash, and other sources.
“The addition of fluoride to toothpaste in 1956 makes a difference,” Danielle Cohen Higgins, of District 7, said during the meeting later adding that “the potential of a hazardous risk” concerned her.
The controversy includes fears of its effect on children’s neurodevelopment and cognition after a pediatric study aimed to find connections with data on urinary fluoride and intelligence quotient, or IQ, scores.
“The actual pouring into our drinking water can resume if the data changes,” Cohen Higgins said.
Commissioner Raquel A. Regalado, who had moved to defer the item until after the end of the Florida legislative session in Tallahassee, voted against it.
“I think this is outside of the scope of what we do,” Regalado, of District 7, said.
The majority of commissioners opposed the deferral. Regalado said she was also concerned about the county’s contractual obligations.
“To the municipalities that we sell water, we have contracts with them, and we have to look at those contracts,” Regalado said adding, “We have not given notice to these municipalities ... litigation is a possible outcome ... They have not told us if they want fluoride.”
Commissioner Anthony Rodriguez, the commission’s chairman, said the legislation applied to unincorporated Miami-Dade County and 14 municipalities that are county customers.
“We have letters of support from the city of West Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah,” Gonzalez said about the municipalities under contract, which also include Coral Gables, North Miami, Miami Gardens, Aventura, and Sunny Isles Beach.
Before the vote, Rodriguez joked the county’s campaign spokesperson should be rapper Flo Rida.
The item passed. Commissioner Eileen Higgins, of District 5, and Regalado were the only ones who voted against it.
Oliver G. Gilbert, of District 1, said he wasn’t sure about the item, but he also voted in support of it.
Marleine Bastien, of District 2; Keon Hardemon, of District 3; Micky Steinberg, of District 4; Kevin M. Cabrera, of District 6; Juan Carlos Bermudez, of District 12; and Rene Garcia, of District 13; also voted in favor of Gonzalez’s item.