In the early morning hours of Wednesday at Melbourne, Florida's city hall, the city council voted 6-to-1 to end water fluoridation, The Washington Post reported.
The city council reached the decision after protester after protester voiced their opposition to fluoridating the water. Many said that they refused to be medicated. Some suggested fluoride had affected their thyroid levels. One woman said fluoride caused "spiritual suppression."
Dentists said ending fluoridation would harm children's oral health.
As the minutes ticked past midnight, the Melbourne City Council ultimately reached a decision to ban the substance from their water supply — a decision that will impact some 170,000 of the city's residents.
The Post reported this was the "largest" community to ban fluoride and a sign the "anti-fluoride activists are winning."
Ending water fluoridation in Florida has trended since the state's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, said in November that dumping the substance into the water was "public health malpractice."
In September, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled that water fluoridation poses an "unreasonable risk" to children.
"The Court finds that fluoridation of water at 0.7 milligrams per liter ... — the level presently considered 'optimal' in the United States — poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children ... the Court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury, a risk sufficient to require the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] to engage with a regulatory response," Chen wrote.
"In all, there is substantial and scientifically credible evidence establishing that fluoride poses a risk to human health; it is associated with a reduction in the IQ of children and is hazardous at dosages that are far too close to fluoride levels in the drinking water of the United States ... Reduced IQ poses serious harm. Studies have linked IQ decrements of even one or two points to, e.g., reduced educational attainment, employment status, productivity, and earned wages."
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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