A bill to ban the use of the mineral in public water passed the Florida House 88-27. It now awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature.
Lawmakers in Florida gave final passage to a bill to ban fluoride in public water systems Tuesday, with the state House voting 88-27.
SB 700, also known as the Florida Farm Bill, doesn’t mention the word “fluoride,” but it would effectively ban the chemical compound by preventing “the use of certain additives in a water system.” The bill awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature.
If DeSantis, a Republican, signs the bill, Florida will become the second state to ban fluoride from water supplies.
Looks like dentists in Florida are about to make a killing.
You’re assuming people can afford to go to the dentist.
Who needs teeth even you have flood insurance.
9/10 Evil dentists approve
All dentist are evil though.
The three people who still have teeth in Florida are in trouble now.
Dumb question: if this becomes countrywide, can we do it ourselves? Like, add fluoride and what have you to our tap water?
Some public water naturally has flouride in it without adding it. IIRC it was high flouride well water in Colorado that revealed its benefits You can also use flouride rinses or just not rinse after brushing. This doesn’t help kids though, which as I understand it are the primary beneficiaries of flouride in waterr.
As far as I know there’s not a way to just add it to the house supply, like they do with water softeners in some places, but you can get drops you can add to an individual glass of water. There are also tablets you can take. What I do at this point is use a fluoride mouthwash in the evening (the purple listerine; you have to avoid eating or drinking for 30 minutes after using it, so the evening is convenient that way) and also get the fluoride treatment at my dental hygienist appointments, along with using a fluoride toothpaste (which you’re most likely already using).
It’s a hassle, though, especially during the transition. When I moved out here, my teeth got worse in a hurry until I adapted to this new routine.
the state is named after flouride, FLOURIDA
Well, now I know for sure that you’re not in that state.
Because they got U out
Also, the Spanish named it “Florida”, which means “flowered”, root word “flor” for “flower”. Likewise, Nevada means “covered in snow”, root word “nieve” for “snow”.I believe that is not the etymology, and also you spelled flouride wrong.
The other state is Utah.
Leave Florida if you can. Especially if you have or are expecting children. Moving isn’t always possible, but if you live in Florida know that your state is actively trying to hurt you.
You know who doesn’t need Fluoride in their drinking water? People with dentures.
Checkmate whipper snappers.
You don’t need municipal water to be fluoridated if you just want your kids to have fluoridation. When I was a kid, we didn’t have fluoridation available in our municipal water, and so my folks got themselves a water cooler and ordered delivery of five gallon bottles of fluoridated water for it. Mom made a point of making milk with it from powdered milk so that everyone got their fluoridation. You can still get those bottles.
I mean, I’m sure that the great bulk of people aren’t going to do that, and that it’s going to lead to dental problems down the line, but it’s not like an individual can’t get ahold of the water if they want it. Costs more per unit of water volume to have it delivered than to pipe it in, but then, you’re not drinking all that much volume of water, either; most residential water use goes to things other than drinking.
EDIT: Plus, if you have a water cooler, you also can have chilled water. We didn’t have a powered cooler; ours was just an unpowered, gravity-fed dispenser, but all of the modern-day ones I’ve run into in offices have a chiller.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=water+dispenser+cooler
If I lived in (tropical) Florida, I’d probably want to have chilled water handy…
You’re kinda missing the point. It doesn’t stop at flouride. It doesn’t stop at deregulating manufacturing waste. Nothing in politics is “just one thing” it’s either an up or down trend that continues until people force change.
Being able to circumvent their measures doesn’t mean they aren’t actively trying to increase harms for residents.
You don’t leave Florida because you want flouride in your water. You leave Florida because it’s the type of state that would ban flouride in the water.
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Not to mention infeasible for people already struggling to afford food and other basic necessities. Which means they will struggle to afford the dental care from not being able to afford privatized fluoride.
Its all a trap to push people in poverty into deeper states of vulnerability, eventually prison, and therefore free labor for the state
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I feel so bad for anyone who lives there through no choice of their own
You’ve been Jammed!
“Sir! The radar! It appears to be - jammed!”
And raspberry… I hate raspberry!
FYI it was a reference to parks and rec, where the local dentist (Jeremy Jamm) tried to prevent Fluorine in water so people had more cavities… because it was good for his business.
His catchphrase was “you’ve been Jammed”.
I thought it was a reference to Space Balls
How can the bill not say fluoride specifically but mentions “certain additives”. Surely it must list what those certain additives are? Odd.
Because Republicans like vague language in their bills so the can get away with shit.
It basically says you can’t add anything to water except for “water quality additives” and has a fuzzy definitely of water quality additive.
403.859 Prohibited acts.—The following acts and the causing thereof are prohibited and are violations of this act: (8) The use of any additive in a public water system whichdoes not meet the definition of a water quality additive as defined in s. 403.852(19)
And then 403.852(19) has
“Water quality additive” means any chemical, additive, or substance that is used in a public water system for the purpose of: (a) Meeting or surpassing primary or secondary drinking water standards; (b) Preventing, reducing, or removing contaminants; or © Improving water quality.
Bold are the additions. The “primary and secondary drinking water standards” are legally defined terms where the EPA sets limits on maximum allowable amounts of stuff in water.
https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/how-epa-regulates-drinking-water-contaminants-documents
Personally, I would argue that fluoride is added to water for the purpose of “improving water quality” because water that protects people’s teeth is higher quality than water that doesn’t. If I were someone from a municipality whose job was ensuring water quality, I would read this as still allowing the addition of fluoride. If anyone doesn’t like that, let them try to prove in a court that fluoridated water is lower quality.
let them try to prove in a court
I don’t think that would help these days
Do not obey in advance. The only way fascists succeed is by people chosing to appease them.
Yanks love to stereotype Brits as having bad teeth when statically your teeth have more cavities and removals (our dentistry focuses on health over cosmetics). Hopefully shit like this can fully kill that off that stereotype.
The UK largely doesn’t fluoridate, so this is one of the (few) areas where the US actually does better than the UK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_by_country
The UK does generally have better tooth health in the grand scheme of things, but it’s actually pretty close, and the US is still really high on the list.
https://www.yongeeglintondental.com/blog/healthy-primary-teeth/
Without checking, I suspect the US’s slightly higher cavity rate is more down to sugar consumption than received dental care.
Did you read the rest of the Wikipedia article? How is better to add fluoride in the amounts the US does? It says in the Wikipedia article:
Recent studies suggest that water fluoridation, particularly in industrialized countries, may be unnecessary because topical fluorides (such as in toothpaste) are widely used and cavity rates have become low. For this reason, some scientists consider fluoridation to be unethical due to the lack of informed consent. However, a recent study funded by NHS found no significant difference between individuals who receive fluoridated water and those who don’t in terms of missing teeth and reducing social inequities.
I found this good review article based on a study commissioned by the Canadian government.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408444.2023.2295338
It seems like potential IQ effects are still difficult to distinguish as a dose response, so they weren’t able to come up with a point of departure. It doesn’t help that in a lot of studies comparing “high” and “low” fluoridation effects on IQ, the “low” is still higher than the WHO recommended level of 1.5 mg/L, and the US recommended level of 0.75.
I think the optimal level is likely going to vary by municipality based on the quality of dental care and the use of fluoridated toothpaste (that everyone overuses), and consumption of high fluoride beverages like tea. I guess my main takeaway is that people need to read their local water quality report, and do what they will with that information
and also dental care isnt usually covered by most insurance so people try to ignore the problem til its too late.
“yes we offer health insurance but fuck your teeth and eyes you poor fuck”
Vision insurance is also completely useless.
“Whoops, your prescription is too strong. We only cover glasses for the mildly blind.”
I stopped signing up for vision insurance when it was cheaper to do some “two for one frames” deal without insurance.
That’s only because we have states like Alabama skewing our statistics
It’s also a diet thing and a result of people damaging their teeth with whitening and cheap veneers.
The majority of people I know with dental issues couldn’t afford to have minor things fixed so they turned into major things.
Dental insurance is a joke and lots of people don’t even get that joke.
They are deporting teeth too
Ban chlorine and chloramine in the water too! The microorganisms will strengthen your immune system. Just like Haiti. :)
Bring back asbestos, Florida! And leaded gasoline!
And gas station bath salts!
As if people’s teeth in Florida weren’t already bad enough from all the drug abuse.
meth mouth. plus meth gators.
