PALM BAY, Fla. — More cities in Florida are opting to not add fluoride to tap water. 

This comes after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo advised local governments across the state to stop adding fluoride to the water supply.

At a council meeting Thursday night, Palm Bay city leaders voted unanimously to stop adding fluoride to their water supply. 

Palm Bay is not the first city to discuss fluoridation recently, as a handful of other cities have made this decision recently. Just last month, Tavares leaders voted 4-1 to remove fluoride from drinking water.

That same week, Leesburg leaders voted to move forward with a plan to add fluoride.

In Palm Bay, the agenda item was suggested by new council member Chandler Langevin, who explained his push for this conversation during the meeting. 

Langevin said that a reason why he brought the item forward was because of the residents sharing their concerns about it during his time campaigning. 

“I’ll be honest with you. On the campaign trail, I’ve talked a lot. We’ve all knocked on a lot of doors, and probably talked to a thousand residents, and it was the standard stuff. It was infrastructure. It was public safety, and it was jobs. But then, I would say the fourth-most brought-up item was fluoride in the water,” Langevin said. “So, it was one of the first things I looked into after the election.”

According to Palm Bay Utilities Director Gabriel Bowden, the city has not put fluoride into the water since 2016, when the north plant’s fluoride system failed, and in 2017, when the same happened to the south plant system.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends a level of 0.7 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of fluoride in your drinking water. This is the level that prevents tooth decay and promotes good oral health.

But in a press conference held in November 2024, Ladapo advised local governments across the state to stop adding fluoride to their community water supplies. He called it “public health malpractice,” despite a widespread consensus among public health experts that fluoridation has dramatically improved dental health in the United States.

Langevin said that Ladapo’s recommendation as surgeon general carried a lot of weight.

“I think this is the right move moving forward. The main thing for me, though, it’s just, it was mentioned in public comment, but we are force-medicating our entire population if we do this, and that’s just not right. It’s a personal choice if you want fluoride. Go buy fluoride products and use them. If you don’t, don’t. With any other medical decision, the government doesn’t make that for you, you make that for yourself,” Langevin said.

In 2021, Brevard County commissioners voted to stop adding fluoride to the water in Mims.

At last night’s meeting, residents who talked during public comment also supported the decision by the city to stop adding fluoride to the water. 

Most recently, officials in Port St. Lucie announced in December that the city’s utility department has temporarily stopped adding fluoride to the water supply for its 95,000 customers.