Courtesy of Kentucky Lantern
Water fluoridation would become optional in Kentucky under a bill approved Thursday by the Kentucky House.
House Bill 103 passed 67-29. The House also approved the proposal last year before it died in the Senate.
Primary sponsor Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, has heralded it as a local control measure, calling the state’s current requirement an “unfunded state mandate.” Kentucky currently requires water utilities serving more than 3,000 customers to add low levels of fluoride to drinking water which, according to the National Institutes of Health, helps prevent cavities and tooth decay.
“It’s the government’s responsibility to produce the cleanest drinking water they can for their citizens,” Hart said. “It’s not the government’s responsibility to force any type of medical dental treatment onto its citizens.”
Rep. Rachel Roarx, D-Louisville, was among those who voted against the bill.
“Our state health department is the appropriate entity to make this determination that has to do with public health,” she said. “Our local water boards possess no requirement to have medical or health expertise, but our state health departments do.”
Rep. T.J. Roberts, R-Burlington, argued the bill “is simply about choice.”
“This is about giving local responsive water facilities the ability to represent their constituents and yield to their desires,” he said.
Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, said the bill would remove choice.
“This is not a bill that really addresses safety,” she said. “This is about taking rights away from people who may want to continue fluoridating water.”
Health advocates and organizations, including the Kentucky Coalition for Healthy Children, Delta Dental of Kentucky, Kentucky Oral Health Coalition, Louisville Water Co. and others, have asked legislators to keep the fluoride requirements in place.
In a January letter they wrote, “Jeopardizing water fluoridation programs will lead to increased healthcare costs and disparities in oral health outcomes, particularly among low-income and underserved populations.”
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
