Fluoride in your water.

Is it good or potentially bad for you?

Well, today, members of the House Health Services Committee discuss the merits of House Bill 16.

That bill would remove Kentucky's fluoridation mandate for drinking water.

Advocates for the bill say that it's about leaving fluoride use up to local control, with some also arguing that high levels of the naturally occurring mineral could harm a child's intellectual development.

But the bill's critics argue that removing fluoride would lead to an increase in tooth decay and increase Medicaid costs for Kentuckians.

I hear testimony that we visit all these places that that don't have any water, but they throw in and don't have access to fluoride.

So we do have access to fluoride.

I remember them bringing trays around when we were in school of fluori spit it back in the cup and remove it.

So saying that we don't have access to fluoride.

It just doesn't.

It's it's just not true.

So lumping us in and that, that doesn't, that doesn't make a case for me.

And even if it did, we're not giving a blanket approval for our water companies to put whatever chemicals in that they want just because we're saying that some chemicals are acceptable.

So I think it should be up to the local municipalities to make their case about whether they want it or not.

The vast majority of the studies say that 8.7, which is the level that we use in Kentucky, that those those negative effects do not occur and that we get the benefit of the fluoride in the developing teeth of the infants in the young children, which helps protect those teeth as they age.

If we give the ability for that decision to be made locally, who's actually going to be making that decision?

Will they be elected and truly represented, truly representing the local population or not?

There is data from the public health people that show that for every 10% of Kentuckians that are taken off water fluoridation, we can anticipate a $19.1 million increase in Medicaid expenses.

House Bill 16 is sponsored by Representative Mark Hart of Falmouth, a Republican who sponsored a similar bill that did not pass either chamber in 2024.

Kentucky is one of 13 states that mandate fluoridated drinking water.