NBC News reports that Utah could make history as America's first state to ban fluoride in public water systems — even though major medical associations supporting water fluoridation:

If signed into law [by the governor], HB0081 would prevent any individual or political subdivision from adding fluoride "to water in or intended for public water systems..." A report published recently in JAMA Pediatrics found a statistically significant association between higher fluoride exposure and lower children's IQ scores — but the researchers did not suggest that fluoride should be removed from drinking water. According to the report's authors, most of the 74 studies they reviewed were low-quality and done in countries other than the United States, such as China, where fluoride levels tend to be much higher, the researchers noted.

An Australian study published last year found no link between early childhood exposure to fluoride and negative cognitive neurodevelopment. Researchers actually found a slightly higher IQ in kids who consistently drank fluoridated water. The levels in Australia are consistent with U.S. recommendations.

Major public health groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association and the CDC — which says drinking fluoridated water keeps teeth strong and reduces cavities — support adding fluoride to water.

The article notes that since 2010 over 150 U.S. towns or counties have voted to keep fluoride out of public water systems or to stop adding it to their water (according to the anti-fluoride group "Fluoride Action Network"). But this week the American Dental Association (representing 159,000 members) urged Utah's governor not to become " the only state to end this preventive health practice that has been in place for over three quarters of a century."

Thanks to Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the news.

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