Miami-Dade commission defies mayor, votes again to end adding fluoride to water

“Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) standing by their recommendation for low fluoride levels to prevent caries, County commissioners voted 8-4 to override Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s veto of Miami-Dade legislation passed last month ordering a halt to the county’s fluoridation program for drinking water.

With Levine Cava’s April 11 veto overridden, the original county resolution stopping fluoridation is now in effect. It instructs the county’s Water and Sewer Department to halt adding fluoride to tap water within 30 days. If the schedule is followed, Miami-Dade residents should see an end to fluoridation in early June, weeks before the state ban would go into effect.

Before the local override vote, Levine Cava had criticized the state legislation as ignoring medical expertise in favor of fringe science.

‘It disregards the overwhelming consensus of dentists and doctors and medical experts,’ said Levine Cava, a Democrat in a nonpartisan office.”