Bill removing Arkansas' fluoride mandate passes Senate; in House committee
Sen. Clint Penzo, R-Springdale, addresses the Arkansas Senate on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
Two bills affecting fluoride in drinking water are scheduled for Arkansas House committee discussion Thursday after passing the Senate on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 2, which would repeal a statewide mandate for public water system fluoridation, passed the Senate on an 18-12 vote with five senators not voting.
Senate Bill 613, which outlines a petition process to put the question of water fluoridation on a local ballot for consideration by voters served by a public water system passed by a wider margin, 27-7, with one senator voting present.
Both bills are on the agenda of Thursday's House Committee on Public Health, Welfare, and Labor.
Committee rejects proposal to repeal Arkansas' water fluoridation mandate
Both bills were sponsored by Sen. Clint Penzo, R-Springdale, who has said that fluoride is a 'poison.' Fluoride — which helps prevent tooth decay — has been used in drinking water since 1945 to improve dental health.
Penzo described SB2 as 'a good local control bill that allows the local water districts to determine' whether to fluoridate in his remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday evening.
SB2 was voted down in the Senate Public Health committee in February, but Penzo successfully extracted the bill from committee last week over objections from committee chair Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who said her committee had done its due diligence when urging her colleagues to reject the extraction motion.
Green Forest Republican Sen. Bryan King, an opponent of water fluoridation, argued that it was a matter the entire Senate should take up and that four members of an eight-member committee shouldn't be able to hold up a bill that the whole body wanted to consider. The extraction motion passed 19-12, with two voting present.
Arkansas is one of a minority of states that mandates fluoride in its drinking water, and has done so since 2011.
Penzo's effort to remove Arkansas' mandate comes at a time when fluoridation has been put in the spotlight by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been outspoken in his opposition to community water fluoridation.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Kennedy planned to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending water systems fluoridate their water, and that the EPA announced the same day that it is reviewing potential health risks from fluoride.
Utah became the first state to ban adding fluoride in drinking water in late March.
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