Neither Vero Beach nor Indian River County has plans right now to stop adding fluoride to the local drinking water, but the topic is likely to be up for discussion soon following new guidance from Florida’s Surgeon General and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vow to ban fluoride.
Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, wants to ban fluoride from drinking water, and Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who heads up the Florida Department of Health, recommended two weeks ago that communities stop adding fluoride to their water supply.
“Due to the neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure, particularly in pregnant women and children, and the wide availability of alternative sources of fluoride for dental health, the State Surgeon General recommends against community water fluoridation,” Ladapo said in an analysis of the pros and cons of municipal water fluoridation.
Following Lapado’s guidance, the city of Stuart decided to stop adding fluoride to its drinking water at least temporarily. But neither the Vero Beach City Council nor the Indian River County Commission has thus far taken any action.
Even without adding fluoride to the drinking water supply, both Vero Beach and Indian River County utility customers get some naturally occurring fluoride that’s present in Florida’s aquifers.
The City of Vero Beach Utilities serves most of the barrier island with drinking water, including those who live in the unincorporated South Beach area, the Town of Indian River Shores and, of course, Central Beach.
Vero blends its drinking water from wells which tap into shallow or “surficial” wells underneath the airport, and the deeper Floridan aquifer. Utilities Director Rob Bolton explained that “fluoride is found in both the surficial and Floridan aquifers. Naturally it is at 0.23 milligrams per liter (mg/L) in the surficial and 0.32 in the Floridan. The blended level in the city water is about 0.26mg/l,” he said.
“The city adds hydrofluorosilicic acid to bring the level to 0.7mg/l, which is the recommended level. The maximum contaminant level is 4.0mg/l,” Bolton said.
“I realize this is a hot topic of discussion at this time. I can tell you that it has been debated for the last 35 years that I have been in the water profession. You have the activists on one side claiming it causes osteoporosis and the dental profession on the other claiming it is beneficial to good strong teeth,” Bolton said.
Bolton said fluoride was first added to drinking water in the post-war late 1940s, and the program was greatly expanded in the 1970s and 1980s. “I can remember grants in the 90s through the Florida Department of Health to pay for fluoride injection systems and the first year of chemicals to convert holdouts that had not been adding it. By then there was public opposition to adding fluoride.”
As Ladapo pointed out in his guidance sheet, almost all toothpaste today contains fluoride, plus fluoride treatments applied by a dentist are available for those who have access to care and can afford it.
“As a result, the recommended level was lowered to 0.7 mg/L about 10 years ago. The dental profession still stands by adding fluoride since poverty-stricken areas cannot afford to go to the dentist,” Bolton said.
Bolton said his parents’ and grandparents’ generation who did not have fluoride in their drinking water growing up often had partial or full dentures in their golden years, but that’s a lot more rare among today’s Baby Boomers, who are largely retiring now with a full set of teeth – “a result of growing up on city water with fluoride added,” Bolton said.
Indian River County provides potable water to much of the northern part of the barrier island, plus Sebastian and the South County outside the Vero Beach city limits.
“Our groundwater wells have naturally occurring fluoride levels of around 0.3 to 0.35 milligrams per liter (mg/L). The Department of Utility Services supplements the naturally occurring fluoride with sodium fluoride to reach the Public Health Service’s recommended dosage level of 0.7 mg/L, which is well below the federal drinking water standard of 4.0 mg/L,” said Indian River County Utility Services Director Sean Lieske.
Lieske said he and his staff have “not been instructed to put together a plan to stop adding fluoride; however, the Department would cease the addition should the Board of County Commissioners elect to do so.”