City officials in Longview, Camas and Battle Ground, Wash., are currently considering ending water fluoridation in their communities as national debate about the practice continues, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Jan. 28.
Five notes:
1. Battle Ground started debating the practice earlier this month, while Longview and Camas have plans to begin hosting their own meetings shortly.
2. All meetings being held in the cities will be informational, and it will ultimately be up to the city councils to draft ordinances that would remove fluoride from the water supply.
3. National debate about water fluoridation began last year after the National Toxicology Program concluded in a contested report that higher levels of fluoride exposure are associated with lower IQ in children.
4. Robert Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, also said Mr. Trump would aim to remove fluoride from public water sources once he is in office.
5. A federal judge ruled in September that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must address the impact that fluoride has in drinking water. EPA appealed the ruling earlier this month after being urged to do so by a coalition of several oral health organizations.