Water fluoridation debate gains steam in Wisconsin, concerning experts

The village of DeForest is poised to remove fluoride from its drinking water on March 7, joining nearly 80 Wisconsin communities that have stopped fluoridation since 1995. 

The DeForest Village Board voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove fluoride.

Village President Jane Cahill Wolfgram said the majority of residents she talked with opposed the decision, and some are discussing how to reverse it. 

“I supported keeping fluoride … I think as an elected official, it’s important that I listen to the majority of our community,” Cahill Wolfgram said. “People are upset, and they are at a point where they’re looking for a way to readdress the issue.”

Her village became an example of a national debate around the safety of fluoride in water. 

“I don’t want to see an issue of this nature tear the community apart,” Cahill Wolfgram said.

Health experts widely support fluoridation of drinking water. The American Dental Association and American Academy of Pediatrics say adding fluoride at set levels is important to prevent tooth decay. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has heralded it as “one of 10 great public health interventions of the 20th century because of the dramatic decline in cavities since community water fluoridation started in 1945.”

But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was sworn in as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 13, has discussed removing it from drinking water nationally.

And anti-flouride advocates agree with him. 

In Wisconsin, those advocates include Brenda Staudenmaier. Since 2017, she’s urged Wisconsinites to remove fluoride from their water systems.

She worries the mineral is harming children’s brains. A U.S. National Toxicology Program review said high levels of fluoride were associated with lower IQ in children outside the U.S. The U.S. recommends low levels of fluoride in community water, the authors note, and caution the association doesn’t necessarily mean causation. 

“I am concerned of ingesting any fluoride at all,” Staudenmaier said. “It shouldn’t be added to everybody’s drinking water.”

Staudenmaier regularly attended DeForest’s meetings about water fluoridation, though she’s not a resident. 

But she said she’s been discouraged by local debates, and has taken her cause to a national scale. Staudenmaier sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a California district court and won an order for further regulation of fluoride. The EPA is appealing that ruling.

“I’m excited to see this new administration with RFK Jr. just approved,” Staudenmaier said. “I believe that this will be not just a local issue, but we will see some movement at the federal level.”

State organizations, including the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Wisconsin Dental Association, maintain that fluoride is beneficial — particularly for people who cannot get regular dental care. 

Madison dentist Tom Reid is the president of the Wisconsin Dental Association. He said a patient from DeForest recently asked how to get fluoride for tooth protection, since the village will soon remove it. 

“We can prescribe fluoride tablets, and people can take fluoride tablets,” Reid said. 

But community water fluoridation is important, he said, and helps people across socioeconomic status. The U.S. has been adding fluoride to drinking water since 1945. 

“I really don’t understand why we’re having this conversation,” Reid said. “And what the motivation of either communities and/or activists is to take fluoride out of the water.”

Wisconsin’s recommended flouride concentration of 0.7 milligrams per liter is backed by decades of research, he added. 

Nearly 80 Wisconsin community water systems have stopped fluoride treatment — 28 since 2020 — according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Reid  expects communities will change their minds. 

“It would probably be about two, three, four, five years before we start to see a dramatic increase in cavities, but it almost unquestionably will happen,” Reid said. 

Cahill Wolfgram, the DeForest village president, said some of her residents are interested in reversing the village’s decision to remove fluoride. 

“Should the issue come back before us, or should we change our position, we could move forward again,” Cahill Wolfgram said. “The pumps will still be there. The money is still in the budget, the capacity to fluoridate will still be there.” 

She said before the board voted to remove fluoride on Feb 4., people from both sides of the debate visited the community to advocate. 

“We got your opinion. Now, let us hear from our residents who live here and drink our water and pay our taxes,” Cahill Wolfgram said.