Fluoride in Miami-Dade’s drinking water is a major political contention, as it is statewide.
The issue came to a head when county commissioners voted to remove fluoride from the water system in an 8-2 vote April 1, a decision that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava vetoed 10 days later.
In the third veto in her tenure, Mayor Levine Cava said she deemed water fluoridation “essential” to Miami’s public health, a decision she reached after roundtable discussions with dentists, doctors, community leaders, concerned parents, and other medical professionals.
Supplementing Miami’s drinking water since 1958, fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral vital for not only tooth and bone health but for reducing the risk of serious illnesses, including heart disease and diabetes.
According to Amanda Kinnick, interim director of the county’s Water and Sewer Department, fluoride already exists naturally in Miami’s drinking water, at a rate of 0.2 milligrams per liter, or 0.2 parts per million, which is below the recommended optimal level of 0.7 ppm. The remaining 0.5 ppm is supplied by fluorosilicic acid, a fluoride product commonly used for fluoridation. The product is delivered by tanker truck to the county’s three water treatment facilities and stored in designated tanks.
“It’s introduced into the water through metering pumps, and then these pumps ensure a precise flow rate of the fluorides added, and that’s how we control the dosage, and then daily laboratory analysis of the finished water is conducted to verify the proper fluoride concentration. The department also submits monthly operating reports, which includes the fluoride levels, to the Florida Department of Health,” Ms. Kinnick told Miami Today.
Regarding fluoride’s role in public health, Mayor Levine Cava said she determined that fluoridation was not only safe but necessary and vital for Miami-Dade’s public health. In roundtable discussions with medical professionals, she told Miami Today, she concluded that the benefits of fluoridation outweighed its risks.
“For me, it was a kind of no-brainer that we had fluoride in the water,” the mayor said. “I never understood there was any controversy associated with it, but I didn’t want to just go on rumor … so I convened two different roundtables with dental experts, community leaders, concerned parents, and learned so much more about it that it became very compelling, that if we take it out of the water we’re going to see some very bad results.”
Mayor Levine Cava cited examples of communities across the nation, including Pinellas County, FL, that removed fluoride from their drinking water and then added it back after they found increased risks of dental decay.
Mayor Levine Cava also addressed concerns regarding fluoridation, including widespread claims and theories that fluoride is harmful to the body in various ways.
“What we learned from the experts was that the studies being cited were not scientifically validated studies, and they were talking about levels of fluoride way beyond the minute amount recommended safe in the drinking water,” she said.
“The risk is small in huge amounts that we don’t even use.”
Mayor Levine Cava stressed the importance of fluoridation in the drinking water, encouraging the public and the media to understand the importance of fluoridation and to remain well-informed on the process, with the county publishing a fact sheet regarding the facts and myths of the situation.
“Many people do not have access to basic dental care,” the mayor said. “It’s very expensive to go to the dentist. People don’t necessarily practice good oral hygiene. They don’t know, they haven’t had the education, they might not purchase fluoridated toothpaste. They might not even have the funds to purchase toothpaste at all. We know that in the Black community, the rate of cavities is twice the rate as the white community.
“We do have a gap in prevention,” the mayor said, “but even with all of that, even if we have ready access to dental care and preventative care, the experts were very clear that fluoridated water is a really much better and important preventative measure.”
The post Mayor Daniella Levine Cava calls fluoride ‘essential’ to health appeared first on Miami Today.