Pinellas County in Florida will begin fluoridating its public water supply again on March 1, undoing a 2011 vote by county commissioners to cease fluoridation, according to a report by WTSP News.
A November 2012 vote reinstated fluoridation for the water supply, which serves 700,000 customers. Dissenting votes argued that fluoridation is no longer as necessary as it was 50 years ago, since so many dental products include it among their ingredients. Another contention was that the government was infringing upon citizens' right to communicate with their dentists and doctors about what medicines they wanted to put into their bodies.
One change is an adjustment of fluoride levels in the water supply to 0.7 parts per million, the recommended amount for oral health.
Because fluoridation equipment is already in place, the cost to customers will be extremely low, roughly 25¢ annually, and there will be no rate increase. Janet Long, District 1 commissioner, explained in a previous interview with DrBicuspid, "It's not like [the county] saved the money when they took the fluoride out; they just spent it on something else."
