A proposal to end the addition of fluoride from public drinking water in Louisiana failed Wednesday in the legislature following passionate testimony from health care and dental professionals.
Senate Bill 2 by Sen. Michael “Big Mike” Fesi, R-Houma, would have required localities that want fluoride added to their water to have their residents petition for an election and vote on the issue. It failed in the House Committee on Health and Welfare in a 10-5 vote.
Louisiana law currently mandates the addition of fluoride to drinking water systems with 5,000 or more service connections.
“Water fluoridation is a safe, effective and equitable public health intervention that has been proven for over eight decades to reduce dental decay significantly,” Dr. Kimberly Smith-Bibbins, chief dental officer for SWLA Center for Health Services, said during committee testimony.
“We can replace our teeth,” Fesi said in a text message after the bill was voted down, sharing his doubts about the ability for utilities to regulate the amount of fluoride people consume. “I don’t think we can replace our thyroid or pineal gland.”
There is not any firmly documented link between consuming fluoride and thyroid or endocrine issues, with many of the focused studies into it laced with methodology and bias concerns.
Fluoridated water systems serve about 38% of Louisianans, compared with a national rate of about 75%, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
Smith-Bibbins said Louisiana, in particular, benefits from public water fluorination, especially “where many communities face barriers to accessing regular dental care.”
“It has served our children very, very well without negative consequences to our adults,” Rep. Joseph Stagni, R-Kenner, said before voting against the bill. Removing fluoride requirements could cause a “cataclysmic problem” in public health outcomes for Louisiana, he said.
Louisiana Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham spoke in support of Fesi’s bill in committee, citing claims that overfluorination can lower children’s IQs. The validity of studies that have come to this conclusion has been called into question, with critics citing inadequate data and only loose connections between fluoride dosing and lower IQ scores.
Abraham argued that communities could opt in to fluoridation, to which Stagni responded that the option currently exists in state law for locals to remove it through a vote.
“If people want out, the people have a mechanism right now to take fluoride out of their water,” Stagni said.