TAVARES, Fla. – After over an hour of public comment, testimony from Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and a University of Florida researcher on Wednesday, Tavares City Council members voted to remove fluoride from the city’s drinking water supply.
Council members had delayed a vote on the topic earlier this month, and they said that since then, they have heard from Tavares residents who wanted fluoride removed.
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“The fact is — the people that feel like this is medication — they are being medicated not through their own desires,” said Council member Troy Singer.
His comments came after Ladapo appeared before council members to explain why he was urging municipalities to remove fluoride from drinking water supplies.
He said his concerns stem from reports that high fluoride exposure has potential neuropsychiatric effects on pregnant women and children.
Those reports were based on fluoride levels that were significantly higher than standard recommended levels.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sets a daily upper limit of 0.7 mg of fluoride/liter of drinking water.
The document Ladapo cited found lower IQs in children who had been exposed to total fluoride amounts higher than 1.5 mg/L.
“The risks are just appalling,” he said in Tavares on Wednesday. “On the plus side, does it help teeth? Yeah. That seems pretty good. Fluoride does. Does water fluoridation still make a big difference in teeth? That’s completely questionable.”
He cited the wider availability of fluoride toothpaste.
Some residents disagreed with the surgeon general, including a Tavares-area endodontist.
“I do support fluoridation of the water only because of what I see on a daily basis,” said Dr. Maria Claus. “I’m a root canal specialist, so when the decay gets too deep, which it eventually will if it’s untreated, it hits the center of the tooth, and the tissue becomes inflamed. I see people on a daily basis in pain.”
The vote came in stark contrast to what the city of Leesburg decided on Monday.
Council members there decided to move forward with fluoridating that city’s water supply after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment.
In Tavares on Wednesday, council members approved the removal of fluoride by a vote of 4-1.
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