State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo issues community water fluoridation guidance
Press release from Florida Department of Health
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Today, State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo announced guidance recommending against community water fluoridation due to the neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure.
Fluoride is a naturally occurring chemical compound present in groundwater, fresh and salt water, rainwater, soil, plants, and foods. Community water fluoridation is the process of adjusting the amount of fluoride in drinking water to a level recommended to prevent tooth decay. Historically, community water fluoridation was considered to be a method to systemically, through ingestion, deliver fluoride to all community members. However, currently many municipalities across the U.S. and several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden, have eliminated water fluoridation.
Today, fluoride is widely available from multiple sources, including topical fluorides, such as toothpaste, mouthwashes, and fluoride applications by dental providers. Evidence shows fluoride strengthens teeth, making them more decay resistant. However, additional research is being conducted to review the impacts of overall fluoride exposure in the population.
Floridians should be aware of safety concerns related to systemic fluoride exposure including:
- Adverse effects in children reducing IQ, cognitive impairment, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
- Increased neurobehavioral problems in children whose mothers ingested fluoride during pregnancy.
- Accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland, causing sleep cycle disturbance.
- Skeletal fluorosis, which could increase the risk of bone fracture.
- Potential risk of premature menarche in adolescent girls.
- Potential suppression of the thyroid gland by inhibiting iodine absorption.
Due to the neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure, particularly in pregnant women and children, and the wide availability of alternative sources of fluoride for dental health, the State Surgeon General recommends against community water fluoridation.
The Florida Department of Health strongly supports oral and overall health through:
- Operation and expansion of school-based preventive dental services.
- County health department dental clinics, which provide dental services to communities.
- Screening and treatment referral in pre-school and school settings.
- Provider education, including training on oral health service delivery for those with special health care needs.
- Promotion of healthy habits, with emphasis on a reduction in sugar consumption, through oral health education to communities.
- Providing oral health care supplies to community partners.
- Providing tobacco and vaping cessation resources and services.
“It is clear more research is necessary to address safety and efficacy concerns regarding community water fluoridation,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo. “The previously considered benefit of community water fluoridation does not outweigh the current known risks, especially for special populations like pregnant women and children.”
Based on self-reported data from 2023, it is estimated that more than 70% of Floridians on community water systems receive fluoridated water. To see if your community water system is included, please visit the Florida Department of Health’s Public Water Systems Actively Fluoridating webpage.
I don’t believe anything this charlatan recommends.
So you read all the linked studies before coming to this well-informed conclusion?
I didn’t think so.
Lapado is a fool.
He’s more likely correct than not. Follow the science. So far he’s been correct, too.
Jane: you probably believe everything Fauci & Bill Gates tells you though….
In other words… “My TDS hurts real bad today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Adverse effects in children reducing IQ, cognitive impairment, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
“Increased neurobehavioral problems in children whose mothers ingested fluoride during pregnancy.”
Good grief. Just what people need, another excuse for irresponsible, disobedient, stupid children.
Does GRU water utility still use fluoride? I’m surprised if they don’t follow progressive Europe on that, if true.
Yes, Alachua County is on the list of counties that put floride in our water. See the list within the article. I have a water filter by my sink that has filters for fluoride, arsenic, heavy metals and contaminate.
First, I don’t trust this man at all. He continues to be an embarrassment to UF, and any recommendation he makes should be met with healthy skepticism.
The “evidence” for this recommendation is weak. It is like he made up his mind and then went looking for studies – any studies. If you know science, you can find outliers all the time. Some are wrong, some are truly groundbreaking. This cluster of studies is weak (relatively small sample sizes, demonstrate correlation without significant controls for other factors, conducted overseas) This body of work cited as “definitive” is at best exploratory. To continue, large-scale research is needed especially research that controls for potential confounding variables.
But science is hard, and the bottom line is I don’t trust this man and it is because of the exact type of headline, based “science”.
Ladapo is a quack and political hack. UF – now dictated to by DeSantis lackeys on the Board of Trustees – “hired” him without review and pays him to do nothing and live in Tampa.
“Joseph A. Ladapo, a professor of medicine at the University of Florida and the state’s surgeon general, relied upon a flawed analysis and may have violated university research integrity rules when he issued guidance last fall discouraging young men from receiving common coronavirus vaccines, according to a report from a medical school faculty task force. But the university says it has no plans to investigate the matter….
In its new report, a task force of the University of Florida College of Medicine’s Faculty Council cites numerous deficiencies in the analysis Ladapo used to justify his vaccine recommendation. A summary said the work was “seriously flawed.” The report’s authors say Ladapo engaged in “careless, irregular, or contentious research practices.”
…It (he report) was referred to the university’s Office of Research Integrity, Security and Compliance, a UF spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. Under university guidelines, the referral could have compelled the state’s flagship university to consider a formal investigation of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s surgeon general.
But the university’s top research officer said on Wednesday it would close the matter, because Ladapo’s work as a state official was outside the school’s purview.
“As this work was done by the Dr. Joseph Ladapo in his role as the state of Florida Surgeon General and not in his role as a UF faculty member, the UF Office of Research Integrity, Security and Compliance has no standing to consider the allegations or concerns regarding research integrity set forth in the Faculty Council task force report,” David Norton, the university’s vice president for research, said in a statement provided to The Post…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/01/04/ladapo-surgoen-general-university-florida/
There are very few people who don’t look for narratives/studies that fit their agenda and ideologies. Very few…just look around.
Ladapo is not only wrong but the UF review found he manipulated data dishonestly.
“Medical school faculty members at UF, where Ladapo is tenured, conducted their own investigation. The Faculty Council referred the resulting report to the UF Office of Research Integrity, Security and Compliance, a move that compels the university to consider a formal investigation of Ladapo for a breach of research integrity principles.
The report determined the information Ladapo used has “serious shortcomings” of which he was made aware. It said the data he relied on “barely” qualified as statistically significant, and his analysis and guidance failed to compare the risk of vaccination with benefits, including limiting COVID-19 deaths and reducing hospitalizations.
Such actions, the task force wrote, “exemplifies ‘careless, irregular’ or contentious research practices.’”
“Indeed, based on an analysis that is seriously flawed … Dr. Ladapo makes policy recommendations that are in direct conflict with those of every other major U.S. scientific and public health organization, which are based on published studies contradicting his finding,” a summary of the task force report said.
Further, the analysis Ladapo used — which included no named authors — claimed deaths were cardiac-related without sufficient supportive evidence, making Ladapo’s guidance a potential violation of UF’s research integrity policy concerning “questionable research practices.”
“While Dr. Ladapo has the right and responsibility to develop public health policy as the state Surgeon General, he must simultaneously uphold the expectations and responsibilities of a tenured professor,” the task force wrote….”
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/579031-joseph-ladapo-used-seriously-flawed-science-to-warn-against-vaccines-uf-faculty-peers-say/
It is significant to me that this report comes from “floridapolitics.com”.
But lawyers WANT low IQs for more money streams.
Another aspect of fluoride is, when it’s boiled it becomes, I believe, a chemical called fluorine, very toxic.
Time to believe something else.
Hydrogen fluoride perhaps, but not fluorine, and with normal amounts at home, highly unlikely to create high enough toxicity levels to endanger human life..
HEAVY may be referring to something like this:
https://www.livingwhole.com.au/what-happens-when-you-boil-fluoride/
Summary: boiling fluoridated water does not remove the fluoride and may increase its concentration depending on the container used.
Oh please.
Really insightful, thoroughly-researched and comprehensive rebuttal there.
What do you call it?
They are dosing us without our permission…”informed consent”….
like how they used fear & intimidation and forced people to guinea pig themselves to take the big lie c19 shot…”0h, people are dieing!”…
Some hypochondriac nut jobs like sicko Saco, the 🐽😷 on the ACSB, & Jazzhole drank the cool aid so bad that they still wear face diapers and want vax passports! …good thing Trump got elected and is going to defund the WHO!
Fact: the Nazis gave flouride to the prisoners in concentration camps to keep them docile…😳
“A total of seven studies with 21,618,297 COVID-19 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The odds ratio (OR) for mortality among unvaccinated patients compared to vaccinated patients was 2.46 (95% CI: 1.71-3.53), indicating that unvaccinated patients were 2.46 times more likely to die from COVID-19….”
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10492612/
You’re repeating a myth. Please post a reputable news source to validate this claim. Reputable means a source other than a right-wing rag.
One more “conspiracy theory” that panned out in real time. The Mosaic Company and the sheep will fight back hard on this
Jazzdummy has been drinking fluoridated water his whole life, and it didn’t hurt his brain. So that settles it.
Jazz: How many C19 shots and boosters have you taken?
If they work, why do you still wear the face diaper?😷
I have had every shot and booster since they came out. My wife is a retired nurse practitioner and keeps me up to date.
If you had the foggiest idea of the facts of Covid you would know that the vaccines don’t guarantee you wont get Covid but makes it less likely you will as well making the consequences less severe. Those are facts which the data I posted above makes clear – if you are not vaccinated you are 2.5 times more likely to croak from it then if you are.
I am old, but anyone who takes covid lightly is a fool, no matter their age. It does affect individuals differently, but even some young people can suffer greatly from it.
I wear a mask only in close confines, like on a plane. Others may wear them if they are otherwise health challenged and as their comfort level dictates. Those who refuse to wear them as some kind of f up political statement are almost as big fools as those who refused to get vaccinated then died. That was most of those who died in the US.
2025 Darwin Award Winner: Jazzman from Florida
He’s obviously a propaganda handle. No real human being would write that comment without being compensated. I’m glad he continues to make egregiously ridiculous comments like that. As I’ve told him before…please keep digging your own grave.
Pathetic disregard of facts and science and virtually the entire medical community. No, I don’t get paid, and of course you don’t – who would pay for that nut job conspiracy drivel.
Beyond the clear facts available and which I’ve shared here numerous times, I had 2 clients I became good friends with, both doctors who were on the front lines of Covid through at least 2021. One is a higher up doc at UF’s ER and the other worked the intensive care unit in Lake City and both treated dying Covid patients. Most were not vaccinated and a few of the stories they shared very sad, as family members watched grandpas die who didn’t have to. One was on his last and his wife on her way to the hospital (in Lake City). He told my friend, “Please tell my wife she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, I love her, and get the shot.” He passed before she got there and she was most surprised by him relenting on getting vaccinated – too late for him.
One story doesn’t make a case, but both of my friends were much depressed by this loss of life which in many cases was not inevitable and needless. Of course the data makes a much stronger case, which is why Ladapo falsely manipulated it to arrive at his BS “conclusion”. He and DeSantis should be in jail as accessories to murder.
Gee, some doctors who treat people who are seriously ill actually saw some seriously ill patients. I mean, what are the chances of that, right?!? You can’t expect anyone to ever take you seriously again (assuming anyone still does) if you are arguing in support of fluoridated tap water. It’s a toxin.
I am stating as a fact that Ladapo is a crooked hack, chosen not for his scientific and medical qualifications but because he’ll back up Republicans who for stupid reasons of their own, decided fighting vaccines and masks during the worst pandemic the US has faced since 1918, no matter the additional deaths such a fight has produced, would help them politically. No doubt there are many fools who will buy that, against overwhelming evidence to the contrary, though there less now than due to attrition.
I have not expressed an opinion on Flouride, which I am not up to date on.
Who do residents lobby on a local level to have this removed from our water system? City or County Commission? County Health Dept? GRU Authority?
GRU controls the water, as far as I know. I remember reading that the city had a hearing on fluoridated water around 2009/2010 (before the GRU Authority existed). That was probably back in the days of Pegeen “biomass is good!!!” Hanrahan.
What are wacky job his own cited studies of populations overseas that didn’t even look for conflating factors. Also there has not been a single case of skeletal flourosis in America ever Google that. Yea let’s get rid of the pennies of cost of flouridated water for more Medicare dental cost. Not to mention all the added cost from other sickness when you behave bad oral health because your teeth are in bad shape. It’s why the military makes you non deployable if your dental hygiene needs taken care of because of the follow on medical issues. What’s next let’s eliminate iodized salt and brink back the goiter belt.
What’s your opinion on the federal government’s recent assessment? Their studies also show a decrease in IQ, especially in children. https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/publications/monographs/mgraph08
Yes it once again implies poison is in the dose. Of course when you exceed recommended doses you cause issues. But these were kids exposed to way to much over decades.
From your link.
This review finds, with moderate confidence, that higher estimated fluoride exposures (e.g., as in approximations of exposure such as drinking water fluoride concentrations that exceed the World Health Organization Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality of 1.5 mg/L of fluoride) are consistently associated with lower IQ in children. More studies are needed to fully understand the potential for lower fluoride exposure to affect children’s IQ.
Also it says all the other studies out there using animals or adults were low quality or inconclusive.
Existing animal studies provide little insight into the question of whether fluoride exposure affects IQ. In addition, studies that evaluated fluoride exposure and mechanistic data in humans were too heterogenous and limited in number to make any determination on biological plausibility. The body of evidence from studies in adults is also limited and provides low confidence that fluoride exposure is associated with adverse effects on adult cognition.
I’ll take the tap water it’s tested far more often then you’re private well is. GRUs latest report has the floruride at 0.4ppm or 1/3 of max WHO level.
Fluoride (ppm) 1/23 – 12/23 N 0.41 0.23 – 0.64 4 4 Water additive that promotes strong teeth; erosion of natural
deposits;
You refuse to see the forest through the trees.
I think Just sayin just named the species (in Latin) of the trees and the latitude and longitude of the forest.
I bet your panties are in a knot over stopping the dosing of kids with puberty blockers, too, right? Is that what this is really about for you? — “It’s a real slippery slope! If we go along with stopping the fluoride in the water, pretty soon those Christian nationalists might want to stop letting us trans kids!!” You guys need drugs like thorazine, klonopin, and lithium (not fluoride).
We have well water, and have been so thankful not to have our children dosed with fluoride in their drinking water. Those who drink more water end up with a higher dosage. There’s no adjustment for size or age or amount of water consumed.
We wouldn’t knowingly take any medication under those conditions. Could this blanket approach to dosing the population have anything to do with the surge in sensitivities to environmental toxins, compromised immune systems, neurological issues, etc.? We have gotten sicker and sicker, the more the gov’t has gotten involved in these involuntary interventions.
I’m thankful for Dr. Ladapo and his willingness to question the status quo premise. That’s actual science. MAHA!
While I agree with his findings id be thankful if he showed up to Gainesville and actually worked for the 300 plus thousand tax dollars we are paying him
Regardless of your beliefs about Dr. Ladapo, COVID-19, or our state government, there really is no reason to continue to put fluoride in tap water. The idea made more sense when dental care and flouride toothpaste were not anywhere near as advanced as they are now. People don’t seek out fluoride in any beverages they otherwise consume like spring water, soda, alcohol, etc. Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden are not “right wing” countries, and they too have realized the juice is not worth the squeeze. Not everything has to be political.
I appreciate your approach and will look into the subject.
I also recall someone noting that there was a big difference between topical application of fluorine to the teeth and gums (good; places the element where it’s needed and not ingested) versus dosing the water supply (bad; ingested where it can cause harm and less applied to the teeth and gums).