Florida’s City of Melbourne Votes 6–1 to End Water Fluoridation

A glass of tap water in Washington on Nov. 25, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Florida City of Melbourne has joined a growing number of municipalities across the United States in moving to halt the addition of fluoride to drinking water, after a federal judge last year ruled that the compound may pose a risk to children’s mental development.

Several cities and towns in Texas, New York state, North Carolina, and Florida in 2024 opted to cease water fluoridation after U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled in September 2024 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had to address impacts posed by fluoride, which has long been added to U.S. drinking water to combat tooth decay. Chen noted that recent studies have found that fluoride is linked to lower IQ scores among children.

In a statement on social media on Wednesday, Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey announced that fluoridation of the city’s water will be ended after the City Council voted 6–1 to remove the compound, a move that would be “effective immediately.”

He echoed a campaign slogan used by President-elect Donald Trump and his Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that the move may “make America healthy again.”

“Prior to the Council meeting I spoke to our Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo about the hazards of adding hydrofluorosisilic acid to our water supply without our resident’s informed consent,” the mayor said in a social media statement, adding that Ladapo provided “support and guidance” for their decision.

On social media, Ladapo had written in November 2024 that fluoride should be removed from drinking water because the compound “increases the risk of neuropsychiatric disease in children and reduces their IQ.”

In 2019, the council voted to keep fluoride in Melbourne’s water supply. But, according to the mayor, “as more information has come out,” council members overwhelmingly voted to remove it.

Trump named Kennedy to lead the HHS just days after his election win, although he still needs to be confirmed by the Senate. Kennedy has been an opponent of water fluoridation, affirming his viewpoint in a post on social media platform X.

“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease,” Kennedy wrote on X in November 2024.

Since 1945, U.S. municipalities have added fluoride to drinking water in a bid to combat tooth decay, which is backed by the American Dental Association and other health care industry organizations. The U.S. Public Health Service also recommends that water systems have 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water added by cities.

In Chen’s order to the EPA, he wrote that it’s still not exactly clear whether fluoride can lower children’s IQ but that recent studies show it may pose a health risk. That order made reference to an August 2024 report from the federal National Toxicology Program that found a link between higher amounts of fluoride and lower IQ, although the agency based its study on fluoride levels at around twice the recommended level of 0.7 milligrams.

“If there is an insufficient margin, then the chemical poses a risk,” the judge wrote. “Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA” under the law.

After Chen’s ruling, the American Dental Association released a statement saying it still “staunchly” backs adding fluoride to water to prevent tooth decay. Further, it alleged that Chen’s ruling had provided “no scientific basis” for the organization to rescind its backing of adding the compound to drinking water.

In October 2024, a spokesman for the EPA told The Epoch Times that the department was still reviewing Chen’s order. Trump named former Republican congressman and New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin to head the EPA, which requires Senate confirmation.