Utah barred fluoride in public water in 2025, and Florida restricted water additives: what the two laws say

On May 7, 2025, Utah's H.B. 81, "Fluoride Amendments," took effect. It says a person "may not add fluoride" to water in a public water system, or to water that will be introduced into one, and it bars cities and other local governments from requiring or permitting fluoridation. In Florida, a broad agriculture bill, SB 700, approved by the Governor on May 15, 2025, added a ban on public water system additives that do not meet a new definition of a "water quality additive." That part took effect on July 1, 2025. Florida's law does not mention fluoride by name.

Utah: a ban written into the drinking water law

H.B. 81 was passed in the Legislature's 2025 General Session, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Gricius and, in the Senate, by Sen. Kirk A. Cullimore. It repealed and re-enacted Section 19-4-111 of the Utah Code, part of the state's Safe Drinking Water Act, under the new title "Prohibition of fluoride in public water systems." The section defines fluoride as a compound containing the fluoride ion that is used to fluoridate drinking water, naming fluorosilicic acid, sodium fluorosilicate and sodium fluoride.

The bill also repealed two sections whose titles show what they had covered: "Provision of fluoridated water -- Request of resident" and "Provision of fluoridated water -- Emergency circumstances." It added fluoride to the list of drugs that Utah pharmacists may prescribe, alongside items such as naloxone and hormonal contraceptives, and directed the Division of Professional Licensing to set guidelines for doing so.

Florida: a definition, not a named ban

Florida's change sits in two short sections of a long bill about the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which also deals with matters from electric vehicle charging permits to a beef marketing program. Section 31 added a definition to sections 403.850 to 403.864 of the Florida Statutes, which cover public water systems: a water quality additive is any chemical, additive or substance used in a public water system to meet or surpass primary or secondary drinking water standards, to prevent, reduce or remove contaminants, or to improve water quality. Section 32 made it a prohibited act to use "any additive in a public water system which does not meet the definition."

The Senate passed the bill 27-9 on April 16, 2025, and the House 88-27 on April 29. It was approved by the Governor on May 15 and assigned Chapter No. 2025-22 on May 20. The act took effect on July 1, 2025, except where it set other dates; it set none for these two sections.

The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee's staff analysis, dated April 9, 2025, set the change against a background paragraph on fluoridation. It noted that the Florida Department of Health had issued guidance on community water fluoridation in November 2024, that State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo recommends against it "due to the neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure," and that at least 29 counties then fluoridated their water. In describing the bill itself, the analysis said only that it defines the term and prohibits other additives.

The CDC's posted statement

The scientific statement on community water fluoridation posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes the opposite view to Florida's Surgeon General. CDC's fluoridation page still describes it as "CDC's position," and the statement was last reviewed on May 15, 2024. It says CDC "promotes the safety and benefits of community water fluoridation as an effective, cost-efficient method for preventing tooth decay." It also says fluoridation cuts tooth decay by about 25% in children and adults, and that expert panels have not found convincing evidence linking it to adverse health effects, with documented risks limited to dental fluorosis, a change in tooth enamel that is cosmetic in its most common form. In 2022, it says, more than 209 million people, or 72.3% of the U.S. population served by public water supplies, had water with fluoride at levels that prevent tooth decay.

What applies today

On November 12, 2026, the Utah Code online showed Section 19-4-111 in the version effective May 7, 2025, as its current version. Like the rest of the state's Safe Drinking Water Act, it is scheduled for repeal on July 1, 2029, under Section 63I-1-219, which sets repeal dates for parts of Title 19. The pharmacist section, in a version amended in the 2026 General Session and effective May 6, 2026, still lists fluoride, now alongside vaccines and epinephrine.

In Florida, the 2026 edition of the Florida Statutes carries the water quality additive definition and the prohibited act exactly as Chapter 2025-22 added them, with no later amendment in either section's history. Questions about what a household's own water system adds go to that system; questions about fluoride for a child's teeth go to a dentist or doctor.