Salt Lake County will stop adding fluoride to its water supply on May 7.
It’s the same day Utah’s new fluoride ban, HB81, goes into effect, prohibiting municipalities like the county from adding the mineral to Utah water systems.
The Salt Lake County Council voted April 15 to repeal its policy on fluoridating local drinking water in accordance the state law, which Gov. Spencer Cox signed March 21. It made Utah the first state in the United States to ban the additive from public drinking water.
The County Council voted 5-4 on the repeal, mirroring its Jan. 28 vote to support HB81 during the legislative session.
Council members Suzanne Harrison, Natalie Pinkney, Ross Romero and Arlyn Bradshaw opposed both times.
Salt Lake County has added fluoride to its water since 2003, after nearly 60% of Salt Lake County residents voted to approve water fluoridation in 2000.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The fluoride station at the Big Cottonwood Water Treatment Facility on Monday, April 21, 2025.
Council chair Dea Theodore said many residents pushed for county leaders to remove fluoride before HB81. She pointed to a 2019 fluoride overfeed in Sandy, which sickened some residents and has “really freaked people out in the community since.”
Council member Aimee Winder Newton added that she supported the bill because of her belief in medical freedom.
Almost all water already has naturally occurring fluoride, according to the Salt Lake County Health Department, but county health regulations required most public water systems to add more of it to reach the “recommended amount,” which is about .7 milligrams for every liter of water.
That’s equivalent to about three drops of fluoride in a 55-gallon barrel of water.
“The health benefits of fluoride include having fewer cavities and less severe cavities,” the county health department’s website states. “This means there is less need for fillings and removing teeth, and less pain and suffering because of tooth decay.”
There are no known negative health effects of fluoride at the level intended for community water fluoridation, the county’s website states. In order to receive a toxic dose of fluoride, an adult weighing 155 pounds would need to drink almost 120 gallons of water at once.
“The major source of fluoride toxicity remains oral hygiene products,” the county’s website states. “Fluoride poisoning data collected by the American Association of Poison Control (AAPC) indicates that toothpaste ingestion remains the main source of fluoride toxicity, followed by mouth washes and supplements containing fluoride.”
About 44% of Utahns received fluoridated water in 2022, and between those who have received the treated water versus those who received non-fluoridated water, Cox said the state has not seen “drastically different outcomes,” according to an interview with ABC4.
The Salt Lake County Board of Health will meet to repeal its regulation requiring water fluoridation on May 1 ahead of the May 7 deadline, county health department spokesperson Nicholas Rupp said.
Salt Lake City’s Public Utilities Department provides water to city residents, but also portions of Millcreek, Holladay, Cottonwood Heights, Murray, Midvale and South Salt Lake — totaling about 389,000 county residents, Public Utilities Director Laura Briefer explained.
The city’s public utilities employees will disconnect the holding tanks that pipe in fluoride at the city’s water treatment plants by May 7, but it will take “a few days” for all fluoridated water to be completely flushed out of the system, Briefer added.
“The water should not taste any different,” Briefer said.
