United States: The Utah legislature decided to prohibit public drinking water fluoridation, which made the state the first to criminalize this practice against the consensus of most dentists and national health organizations.
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Governor Spencer Cox from the Republican party endorsed a law that blocks all authorities in local areas from making choices about fluoridation in their water networks.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that fluoride strengthens teeth through mineral substitution, which takes place during mouthwash processes and helps prevent cavities.
Drinking water fluoridation at low levels continues to serve as a significant public health achievement from the twentieth century in the United States.
The implementation of fluoride in community water supply controls 25% of tooth cavity development, according to research by government scientists.
As the American Dental Association President Brad Kessler of Denver noted, “We’ve got tried and true evidence of the safety and efficacy of this public health initiative,” AP News reported.
According to Kessler, the emissions of cavities in children would happen shortly after Utah terminated fluoride in drinking water.
The ban on water fluoridation occurred shortly after the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as federal health secretary while he maintained doubts regarding fluoridation practices.
“It’s not a bill I care that much about,” Cox maintained, “but it’s a bill I will sign.”
Lawmakers from Utah introduced their bill to eliminate fluoridation because they considered applying fluorides to drinking water too costly. Cox shared a common experience with Utah residents since he matured and reared his children in an area without fluoridated water.
Furthermore, “You would think you would see drastically different outcomes with half the state not getting it….We haven’t seen that,” Cox noted, as AP News reported.
“So it’s got to be a really high bar for me if we’re going to require people to be medicated by their government,” he continued.