The Governor of Utah Spencer Cox has signed a bill this week, making state the first of the country to prohibit fluoride in drinking water.
Under the bill, a person “cannot add fluorine to water or water which will be introduced in a public water system” and a “political subdivision cannot promulgate or apply a prescription which requires or allows the addition of fluoride to water or water which will be introduced, public water.”
The law should come into force on May 7.
In this October 19, 2023, a file photo, the governor of Utah Spencer Cox is expressed during the monthly press conference of the Governor of PBS Utah at the Eccles Diffusion Center in Salt Lake City.
Laura Seitz / The Deseret News via AP, Pool, File
High quality studies show that fluoride prevents cavities and repairs damage to the teeth caused by bacteria in the mouth. Fluoride also replaces the lost minerals of the teeth due to the degradation of acid, according to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, influential skeptics such as the Secretary of Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have long raised doubts about the advantages of fluoride.
