The Mayor of Miami-Dend on Friday said he vetoed the legislation that would remove fluoride from drinking water to Florida’s most populous county, pushing back to a growing campaign against the mineral used.
The veto by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Democratic, comes at a time when critics of the addition of fluoride to water supply have a recently powerful ally: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Health Secretary of President Trump, who called for the states this week to ban the water. Utah recently became the first state prohibiting the addition of fluoride to public water and many other states, including Florida, are considering similar action.
“Science is very clear,” Levine Cava said at a press conference on Friday. He added: “The termination of fluoridation could have real and permanent damage, especially for children and families who cannot afford normal dental care.”
The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, a non-profit body, approved the measure to ban fluoride on April 1 in 8 to 2 votes, with three commissioners. Nine votes are needed to bypass the mayor’s veto if there are 13 commissioners and it is not clear if there will be enough support. The next scheduled meeting of the Board of Directors is on May 6th.
Six commissioners are Republicans, including Kevin Marino Cabrera, an ally of Mr Trump, who will soon depart to become the country’s ambassador to Panama. Mrs Levine Cava is now the highest elected democrat of the state, with Republicans scanning any other elected office in the Miami-Dent-Sheriff and Sheriff and the election supervisor.
At a press conference on Friday, Mrs Levine Cava, surrounded by dentists and doctors in their white medical coats, said research that supports her decision.
“I do what I think is the right thing to do in the interest of community health and I stand with our dental and medical experts,” he said.
Commissioner Roberto J. Gonzalez, who funded the legislation, accused Mrs Levine Cava of “acting as a typical politician, based on municipal polls and tired speech points, endangering people’s health”.
In a statement on Friday, he called on his colleagues to the committee to bypass the veto.
The measure would require the Miami-Dade to stop adding fluoride to water supply within 30 days. Mrs Levine Cava said that along with her office, Florida’s legislative efforts were closely followed by her office to pass a similar ban on state level.
Many experts have warned that the removal of fluoride from drinking water would be detrimental to oral health and in particular the prevention of the cavity. Disease Control and Prevention Centers called one of the “10 largest public health achievements of the 20th century”.
However, compassion for fluoride has taken over the new life in recent years, especially after the pandemic of Koronai, it broke the confidence in public health interventions. Opponents say they want to protect physical autonomy and have caused concerns about the possible cognitive impact on children.
They point out a recent review document, where an analysis of 74 studies carried out by researchers with National Institutes of Health found that there was a relationship between lower IQ ratings in children with high levels of childhood or prenatal fluoride exposure. (The levels studied were twice as much as the CDC recommended and some research found no link.)
Mrs Levine Cava’s veto puts her in contrast to Mr Kennedy and other scattered fluorists in Trump’s administration, as well as Governor Ron Desantis, a Republican and his appointed General Surgeon, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, who traveled around the state.
“Do we necessarily want medicines or do we want people to be able to choose medicines?” Mr. Desantis recently said. “When you force it to supply water, this doesn’t really give people a choice.”
Prior to the mayor’s announcement, Dr. Ladapo, who also called for the stopping of the Covid vaccines, publicly urged Miami-Dent residents to ask the mayor to support the ban on fluoride. “I will never understand how one feels the right to add medicines to the water that other people drink,” he said.
Fluoride was first introduced into a city’s water supply in 1945 and began to become a common practice throughout the country in the coming decades. Studies show an immediate correlation between fluoridation and improvement of oral health.
“The growing mistrust of reliable, time -tested, science based on evidence is frustrating,” said Dr. Brett Kessler, president of the American Dental Union. “When government officials, such as Secretary Kennedy, stand behind the comment of misinformation and confidence of the research, are harmful to public health.”
Fluoring water has been discussed for years, partly because experts say excessive exposure to fluoride for a long time can cause health problems. Federally reduced levels have given the decline in years, including after a recent court ruling.
On Monday, Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Service, announced a decision to “quickly revise new scientific information on the potential risks of fluoride health in drinking water”.
“Without prejudice to the results, when this evaluation is completed, we will have an up -to -date fundamental scientific evaluation,” Mr Zeldin said in a statement. He took Mr Kennedy that he was “long at the forefront of this issue”.
At a meeting of the Miami-Dend Committee in April, most people who spoke during the Public Comments Department were against fluoridation. Days after the meeting, Mrs Levine Cava had a discussion with round tables with doctors, dentists and others on the community that focused on its benefits.
Nearly 20 other cities and governments of the County in Florida voted to remove fluoride from their supplies from the November elections. Among them, the Miami-Dade County, with about 2.7 million people, is by far the largest. A bill under discussion in Florida’s legislative body would prevent local municipalities from adding fluoride to the water.
Miami-Dend’s policy has shifted sharply to the right in recent years, reflecting the conversion of Florida from a battle state to a reliable Republican voting. In November, Mr Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win the county since 1988.
Patricia References are contributed
