What to know about fluoride in drinking water as some lawmakers push to ban it

It is a hotly contested debate that’s been increasing in intensity. Should fluoride be added to the drinking water in our communities?

Fluoride has been in many water systems for decades.

Florida recently banned fluoride from being added to public water systems. Utah was the first state to do it. And now, one PA state senator is pushing for a ban here. The views on this are pretty divided.

Channel 11’s Alyssa Raymond reached out to several people who declined to do interviews, worried about backlash.

Adding fluoride to water started in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The CDC declared community water fluoridation one of the 20th century’s greatest public health achievements.

“What I’ve always been taught is it’s beneficial to the structure of your teeth,” said Ambridge Water Authority Chief Operator David Klar.

Now, actions to remove it from our drinking water.

“We encourage everyone to really dig in, and not just go by the headlines that they see,” said PA Coalition for Oral Health Executive Director Helen Hawkey.

Some of the headlines raising fluoride concerns followed a 2024 report by the National Toxicology Program. It concluded that drinking water with more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter was associated with lower IQs in kids. PA Coalition for Oral Health Executive Director Helen Hawkey points out that that’s more than double the recommended level in our drinking water.

“There are areas of the country and areas of the world that have natural levels up to 10 parts per million or even more,” said Hawkey. “And so, in those areas, yes. Just like anything. Too much of a good thing is not always good. What we really like to reiterate is yes, there have been all these studies but using the level we use in water 0.7 parts per million there has never been any harm shown.”

Hawkey says there are 2,000 water systems in Pennsylvania, and each one gets to decide whether or not to fluoridate.

“We’ve lost maybe 100,000 people over the last decade that have lost that fluoridation,” said Hawkey.

At the beginning of this year, the Edgeworth Water Authority sent out a letter letting customers know it stopped adding fluoride to its water. EWA had been fluoridating since 1966. The authority said it did research and conducted a poll with five out of six responses opposing the addition of the mineral.

In a statement, the EWA said “after considering the potential benefit vs the potential risks (which have increased over the last decade), the board voted unanimously to stop the addition of fluoride for the following reasons: Fluoridation is a recommendation not a requirement, and its only known benefit is treatment for dental caries while it’s negative effects have never been thoroughly researched.”

Edgeworth gets its water from Ambridge.

“We have a reservoir that was built in 1952,”said Klar. “It’s an excellent source of water, and it has a very low level of natural fluoride. About 1/10th of a part per million. Since then, Ambridge never decided that they wanted to fluoridate the water.”

Klar says he never heard anything negative about fluoride until Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Junior started talking about it. RFK Junior called it “a poison.” The Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water.

“Okay, there’s detriments that Robert Kennedy is talking about but do those outweigh the benefits of having the fluoride in the water,” said Klar. “Or is it the other way around?”

Each year, public water systems are required to share a Consumer Confidence Report by July 1. This is where you can find information about fluoridation related to your specific water system.

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