The debate over whether fluoride belongs in public drinking water systems is back before the state legislature again. Houma Senator Mike Fesi has once again authored legislation to ban fluoride from all water supplies. Fesi describes fluoride as hazardous waste that causes health issues and impacts a child’s brain.
“It actually is a known fact, with children, it actually lowers their IQ. There’s been tests done,” Fesi said.
Fesi’s bill to ban fluoride in all public water systems was approved by the Senate last year, but it died in a House committee. This year he filed a bill that would once again ban fluoride in public drinking water statewide, but if local residents wanted fluoride in their drinking water, they could petition to have a vote. Lafayette Senator Gerald Boudreaux objected to that process.
Mike Fesi: “What about all the people who don’t want it and can’t stop that?”
Gerald Boudreaux: “What about letting people who have it keep it, and those who don’t want it can opt out?”
Mike Fesi: “We can’t do that. Under the law today, we can’t do that. We can’t take it out.”
Gerald Boudreaux: “That’s the reason why you can’t do it.”
Boudreaux’s objection helped amend the bill. The legislation heading to the Senate floor now allows voters without fluoride in their drinking water to have a public vote to add fluoride in their drinking water and communities with fluoride in their drinking water, can petition to have an election to remove it. Boudreaux on the compromise legislation:
“Give them the opportunity to decide what those communities want, without the statewide ban and without forcing people to have to opt back in,” Boudreaux said.
The Louisiana Dental Association opposes Fesi’s efforts to remove fluoride from public drinking water systems. The LDA says less than 40% of Louisiana residents live in areas where fluoride is in the drinking water. New Orleans dentist Suzanne Fournier says Fesi’s legislation would result in tooth decay and it’s also costly for the taxpayer.
“If we were to take it out, but then opt in, it is extremely expensive to then have to re-institute it. That’s been shown in Windsor, Canada that took it out. Five years later, they wanted to put it back in, and the cost was astronomical,” Fournier explained.
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