Water Fluoridation in Pennsylvania

What is fluoride?

In some places (like Philadelphia), Zinc Orthophosphate (which is "slightly toxic" if ingested) is added to the water to counteract the corrosive effects of the fluoride.

Fluorides are considered poisons in Pennsylvania law. Fluoride exposure has been linked to many health problems, including hip fractures, neurological damage, ADD/ADHD, lead poisoning, Alzheimer's Disease, birth defects, skeletal fluorosis, dental fluorosis, early onset of puberty, immune system suppression, bone cancer and other rare forms of cancer.

There have been several attempts in recent years to fluoridate specific communities in Pennsylvania (where 54% of the public is already mass medicated with fluoridated drinking water). After 40 years of local opposition, Allentown was fluoridated in November 2000. In the past several years, Elwood City, Scranton, and Erie have been targeted for fluoridation and there has been talk about fluoridating the Aqua PA (formerly Philadelphia Suburban Water) system. During the 1990's fluoridation was stopped in Yardley (Bucks County) and York. In 2003, Shaler, PA (Allegheny County), voted down fluoridation. York has also been targeted continually.

There have been ongoing attempts to force the entire state to add fluoride to the drinking water. In 1973, an attempt to use the courts to require state-wide fluoridation was stricken down. Bills to make fluoridation mandatory in the entire state have been defeated several times in the past decade. Due to the efforts of concerned Pennsylvanians, the Fluoridation Act was blocked in the 1999-2000 legislative session and again in the 2001-2002 legislative session. In these last two sessions, we have managed to keep the bills stuck in committee while building support for alternative legislation known as the "Fluoridation Choice Act," which would give communities the right to remove fluoride from their drinking water if they so choose.

Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation where it has been considered illegal to remove fluoride from a community's drinking water supply once such fluoridation is started. The courts have called the state's fluoridation policy "arbitrary" but they allow it to continue, forcing communities like Lebanon, PA to continue fluoridation even when they want to stop (after having a tank of fluoride split and pollute their community). This precedent may have been overturned with the state's new policy (finalized March 13, 2004) which creates a permitting process for "Proposals to Add or Remove Fluoridation Treatment by a Community Water System." This has yet to be tested in the courts.

We are opposed to any mandatory fluoridation bill in Pennsylvania and we oppose any further movement to fluoridate the drinking water of communities in the state. We support the right to remove fluorides from the drinking waters of the Commonwealth.

To find out whether your drinking water is fluoridated, click here.