Latest news with #Penzo
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bill removing Arkansas' fluoride mandate passes Senate; in House committee
Sen. Clint Penzo, R-Springdale, addresses the Arkansas Senate on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) Two bills affecting fluoride in drinking water are scheduled for Arkansas House committee discussion Thursday after passing the Senate on Tuesday. Senate Bill 2, which would repeal a statewide mandate for public water system fluoridation, passed the Senate on an 18-12 vote with five senators not voting. Senate Bill 613, which outlines a petition process to put the question of water fluoridation on a local ballot for consideration by voters served by a public water system passed by a wider margin, 27-7, with one senator voting present. Both bills are on the agenda of Thursday's House Committee on Public Health, Welfare, and Labor. Committee rejects proposal to repeal Arkansas' water fluoridation mandate Both bills were sponsored by Sen. Clint Penzo, R-Springdale, who has said that fluoride is a 'poison.' Fluoride — which helps prevent tooth decay — has been used in drinking water since 1945 to improve dental health. Penzo described SB2 as 'a good local control bill that allows the local water districts to determine' whether to fluoridate in his remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday evening. SB2 was voted down in the Senate Public Health committee in February, but Penzo successfully extracted the bill from committee last week over objections from committee chair Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who said her committee had done its due diligence when urging her colleagues to reject the extraction motion. Green Forest Republican Sen. Bryan King, an opponent of water fluoridation, argued that it was a matter the entire Senate should take up and that four members of an eight-member committee shouldn't be able to hold up a bill that the whole body wanted to consider. The extraction motion passed 19-12, with two voting present. Arkansas is one of a minority of states that mandates fluoride in its drinking water, and has done so since 2011. Penzo's effort to remove Arkansas' mandate comes at a time when fluoridation has been put in the spotlight by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been outspoken in his opposition to community water fluoridation. The Associated Press reported Monday that Kennedy planned to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending water systems fluoridate their water, and that the EPA announced the same day that it is reviewing potential health risks from fluoride. Utah became the first state to ban adding fluoride in drinking water in late March. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Additional water fluoridation bills filed with Arkansas legislature
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The 95th General Assembly is not finished debating water fluoridation after two bills were filed on Monday. The first bill allows voters to be for or against their local water system using fluoride, and the second allows a water board to decline fluoridation treatment in its system. Fluoride bill fails in Arkansas Legislature committee Senate Bill 468 allows voters to elect for or against fluoride in the county water system. The bill has slight wording changes from Senate Bill 282, filed in February, which had the same intent but failed in the Senate in a bipartisan vote. Senate Bill 474 is a relatively simple call to allow a water board to prohibit fluoridation in its system. The legislation contrasts with Senate Bill 2, filed in November, which attempted to eliminate the 2011 law by creating a statewide fluoridation program. That bill is deferred in committee. Utah close to fully banning fluoride in water, stripping cities' ability to decide Sen. Clint Penzo (R-Springdale) is the lead sponsor for both bills filed Monday. Penzo was also the lead sponsor in the earlier legislation, alongside primary sponsor Rep. Matt Duffield (R-Russellville) and cosponsors Sen. Bryan King (R-Green Forest) and Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R-Knoxville). Fluoride in water was first discovered in the 1930s in Bauxite, Arkansas, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, when a dentist researched why people's teeth in the town were stained brown. A water sample was tested and found to have a high level of water-borne fluoride, labeled 'fluorine.' While scientists knew about fluoride, they were not aware until the Bauxite tests that it could occur in water. Bills filed in Arkansas legislature to remove fluoride from drinking water The first sample was compared with water samples from other locations where brown stain was present and water from those places was also found to have high levels of fluorine. This led to research on water-borne fluoride and its effects. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
