More Wisconsin Municipalities Continue to Discuss Removing Fluoride From Drinking Water

Wednesday, February 19th, 2025 -- 10:00 AM

(Anna Marie Yanny, Wisconsin Public Radio) The village of DeForest is poised to remove fluoride from it’s drinking water on March 7, joining nearly 80 Wisconsin communities that have stopped fluoridation since 1995.

According to Anna Marie Yanny with the Wisconsin Public Radio, the DeForest Village Board voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove fluoride. Village President Jane Cahill Wolfgram said the majority of residents she talked with opposed the decision, and some are discussing how to reverse it.

“I supported keeping fluoride … I think as an elected official, it’s important that I listen to the majority of our community,” Cahill Wolfgram said. “People are upset, and they are at a point where they’re looking for a way to readdress the issue.”

Her village became an example of a national debate around the safety of fluoride in water. “I don’t want to see an issue of this nature tear the community apart,” Cahill Wolfgram said.

Health experts widely support fluoridation of drinking water. The American Dental Association and American Academy of Pediatrics say adding fluoride at set levels is important to prevent tooth decay.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has heralded it as “one of 10 great public health interventions of the 20th century because of the dramatic decline in cavities since community water fluoridation started in 1945.”

But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was sworn in as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 13, has discussed removing it from drinking water nationally.

And anti-flouride advocates agree with him. State organizations, including the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Wisconsin Dental Association, maintain that fluoride is beneficial, particularly for people who cannot get regular dental care.

Madison dentist Tom Reid is the president of the Wisconsin Dental Association. He said a patient from DeForest recently asked how to get fluoride for tooth protection, since the village will soon remove it.

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