Santa Fe, New Mexico, will no longer add fluoride to its water supply.
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber signed the measure on October 15, removing a section of the city code that read: “The water supply of the city shall be fluoridated by the addition of sufficient fluoride ion to raise the concentration of fluoride ion reaching each customer to an optimal level on one (1) part per million parts of water. The fluoride ion level shall be maintained between a minimum of eight-tenths (.8) part per million parts and a maximum of one and two-tenths (1.2) parts per million parts of water.”
The code now reads, “The city shall monitor naturally occurring fluoride ion levels in representative sample locations at least once per month. The water division shall report the results of the monthly monitoring in its annual water quality report.”
The chair of the New Mexico Board of Dental Health Care, Jennifer Thompson, DDS, said in a statement that the board “does not support the City of Santa Fe’s recent decision to remove fluoride from its community water system.” Thompson claimed the decision “jeopardizes the oral and overall health of residents and will increase costs for families, insurers, and taxpayers.”
Santa Fe is the latest of several U.S. areas to end the fluoridation of water. Two states, Utah and Florida, have banned the addition of fluoride in public water systems. In June, Alabama’s Madison Utilities stopped adding fluoride to the city’s water. The action followed a March vote from the Madison Utilities Board.
