Miami-Dade commission defies mayor, votes again to end adding fluoride to water
With Florida poised to order a halt to adding fluoride to water supplies statewide, the Miami-Dade County Commission on Tuesday once again voted to end the dental-health practice in the Miami area, too.
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. Levine Cava needed five commissioners to vote with her to sustain the veto and fell one short. Voting against the override were commissioners Marleine Bastien, Eileen Higgins, Raquel Regalado and Micky Steinberg.
“We made a decision for the people. And the people are sick and tired,” said Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, the sponsor of the legislation ending Miami-Dade’s fluoridation program. “They’re sick because their government has been poisoning them.”
The fate of the veto was a symbolic footnote for the state’s new sweeping ban on adding fluoride to drinking water — legislation awaiting the governor’s signature that would force a halt to the practice across Florida. The state legislation passed the Florida Legislature on April 29, four weeks after the Miami-Dade commission voted 8-2 to ban fluoridation locally. The state bill awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ sign-off would go into effect on July 1.
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.
The eight county commissioners who voted Tuesday to override Levine Cava’s veto and kill the county’s fluoridation program included four Democrats and four Republicans.
DeSantis, whose administration helped the push for passing Miami-Dade’s anti-fluoridation legislation, scheduled a press conference in Miami on Tuesday afternoon, with Regalado saying during the meeting that she expected DeSantis to sign the state fluoridation ban (which is part of an agriculture bill) at the event. While the governor did not do so at the press conference, he said he did plan to sign the bill once he received it from the legislature.
Ahead of the initial Miami-Dade vote to end fluoridation on April 1, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the governor’s surgeon general, had urged county commissioners to pass the legislation, citing research finding health risks for developing fetuses when pregnant women drink fluoridated tap water.
Large medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Florida Dental Association, reject claims that microscopic amounts of fluoride in tap water bring a health risk. Instead, the groups maintain that communities are bound to see increases in cavities and dental infections once fluoride is no longer available in drinking water — particularly in low-income families without adequate access to dentists.
Most groundwater naturally contains fluoride, but local governments across Florida add more to boost oral health. Currently, the Department of Health and Human Services recommends fluoridation, and Miami-Dade and other governments keep fluoride amounts well below the threshold considered safe by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Voting to override the mayor’s veto were Gonzalez, three fellow Republicans — J.C. Bermudez, Rene Garica and Anthony Rodriguez — and four Democrats: Danielle Cohen Higgins Oliver Gilbert, Keon Hardemon and Kionne McGhee.
Of the four who voted against the override motion, all were Democrats except for Regalado.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 12:01 PM.