Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a Turning Point Action campaign rally, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Duluth, Ga. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Residents of a Florida city will soon align with the wishes of at least one of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet choices, as local leaders opt to remove fluoride from the water supply.
In a 3-2 vote, the Winter Haven City Commission approved a measure on Tuesday “authorizing the discontinuance of adding fluoride to the City water supply system.” The move comes two days before Trump announced Thursday that he would nominate erstwhile presidential candidate and anti-vaccination activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the federal Department of Health and Human Services when he takes office in January.
Kennedy, an aspiring politician who does not have medical or scientific training, has said that fluoride is linked to conditions such as arthritis, bone fractures, cancer, low IQ, and thyroid disease. Health experts, however, disagree, and several health professionals have expressed concern over the pending nomination, citing Kennedy’s vocal opposition to vaccines, drugs, food processing, and chemicals.
Winter Haven Commissioner Brad Dantzler pointed to a federal ruling from September as one reason for pushing to remove fluoride from the city’s water supply. As Law&Crime previously reported, a federal judge in California ruled in favor of advocacy and environmental groups seeking to reduce levels of fluoride in local water supplies. In that case, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, a Barack Obama appointee, found that scientific studies supported the argument that current fluoride levels pose “an unreasonable risk of injury to health of the public.”
Chen ordered the Environmental Protection Agency — which may soon be headed by Lee Zeldin, a conservative New York Republican and vocal opponent of environmental regulations — to monitor fluoride levels in water more closely.
“It seemed to me like there was a potential that this was a health hazard, particularly for children, for us to take a step back and pause and remove this,” Dantzler said at the meeting, local ABC affiliate WFTS reported.
The move was supported by Dantzler, Commissioner L. Tracy Mercer, and Mayor Pro Tem Brian Yates.
Winter Haven Mayor Nathaniel J. Birdsong and Commissioner Clifton E. Dollison opposed the measure.
“My mother had nine children,” Dollison said at the meeting, according to local NBC affiliate WFLA. “We grew up poor, lived in a project. I never saw a dentist until I was an adult. I went to the dentist, got my first checkup … he said, ‘You do not have a cavity in your head. You must have lived in a place where there was fluoride.””
Several locals, including Winter Haven resident Hannah Bush, expressed concern over fluoride’s impact on parts of the body other than teeth.
“I can get false teeth if needed,” WFLA reported. “I only have one brain.”
Fluoride has been added to water supplies in the U.S. since the 1950s, when studies determined that it helped prevent tooth decay and cavities in children. Winter Haven has been fluoridating its water since 1986. Removing fluoride would save the city $48,000 per year.
The fluoride is expected to be removed from the city’s water by Jan. 1, 2025, WFTS reported.
Chris Perez contributed to this report.
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