State Representative Levi Dean (R-Xenia) introduced the bill earlier this month, and said he did so after being contacted by a municipal water supplier in his district that had been receiving pressure from residents.
“This (bill) is not about whether fluoride is healthy for your dental hygiene or not,” the Republican lawmaker said, adding that the bill is not a ban on fluoride itself. “This is about an individual’s right to choose how they go about with their health care options.”
American studies on fluoride focus on the benefits of topical fluoride, Dean said, which many people get through modern routine dental care.
“Most toothpaste in stores have fluoride added. So when you brush your teeth, you’re applying it topically because you’re directly applying it to your teeth, which is where the fluoride is needed,” he said.
Not every municipal water system adds fluoride to their water. Current Ohio law says that — naturally or through fluoridization — fluoride in public water systems serving at least 5,000 people shall be “not less than eight-tenths milligrams per liter of water nor more than one and three-tenths milligrams per liter.”
“To put that in perspective, that’s three drops in a 55-gallon drum of water,” said Hal Jeter, doctor and President of the Ohio Dental Association. “The studies that have been referenced by those in opposition have utilized amounts at least twice that much.”
An analysis of several studies published in the JAMA medical journal of pediatrics found that fluoride had an inverse relationship with the IQ of children. However, many of these studies come from China, where naturally occurring fluoride is in significantly higher quantities than what is recommended for fluoridation in the U.S.
“The poison is in the dose,” Jeter said.
The bill comes after federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressed skepticism on X, formerly Twitter, about water fluoridation.
Dentists have long been advocates of fluoridated water, said Jeter, who practices dentistry in Lawrence County, part of Appalachia.
“Anecdotally in my practice ... a lot of children especially, I see folks from both fluoridated water sources and non-fluoridated water sources. And there is a distinct difference in the number of cavities,” he said.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Utah became the first state to ban fluoride from being added to public water systems last month.
If the ban takes effect in Ohio, Jeter said he fears that tooth decay will become more prevalent, possibly leading to other health issues, “especially among children,” he said.
“The reason I say that is because kids a lot of times have a bit more difficulty in accessing the oral healthcare system anyway,“ Jeter said. ”And there are a variety of reasons for that, you know, ranging from are they on Medicaid, are they not on Medicaid? Are they special needs? Are they not? Things like that.”
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