Latest news with #Schneier
CBS News
09-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Florida Senate advances bill to ban fluoride in water
A wide-ranging agricultural bill that would prohibit local governments from adding fluoride to water supplies is ready for a full Senate vote. The measure (SB 700), approved along party lines by the Republican-controlled Senate Fiscal Policy Committee on Tuesday, in part revises the definition of "water quality additive." The bills come amid debates in communities throughout Florida about whether to continue the longstanding practice of adding fluoride to drinking water to help with dental health. A longtime critic of fluoridation in Escambia County, Pueschel Schneier told the committee the issue is about "medical freedom" and claimed there is no excuse for someone to claim they don't have access to a toothbrush. "No government entity has the right to medicate us against our will," Schneier said. "They have no right to medicate an entire population because they believe maybe a small portion of that population will benefit." But Jackson Oberlink, legislative director for Florida For All, maintained that fluoridating water has been one of the nation's most successful public health initiatives. "Are cavities the new culture war? Is the water too woke?" Oberlink said. Calling it "public health malpractice," Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo in November advised local governments to stop adding fluoride to their community water supplies. The American Dental Association responded by claiming Ladapo was "misinformed." Local officials in Port St. Lucie, Naples, and Niceville are among communities that have agreed to remove fluoride from their water. The wide-reaching bill approved Tuesday also would allow the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to create rules to prohibit plant-based products being "mislabeled" as meat and poultry products. The bill also would ban most drone operations over agricultural lands and preempt local governments from regulating construction of housing for "legally verified" agricultural workers. A similar housing preemption was vetoed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who claimed the 2024 measure lacked enforcement related to illegal workers.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Community fluoridation ban heads to Senate floor
(Photo via the Centers for Disease. Control and Prevention) Over objections by the Florida Dental Association and League of Women Voters of Florida, a Senate panel voted Tuesday to bar public water systems from 'the use of any additive included primarily for health-related purposes.' The ban is included in an omnibus Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services bill (SB 700) that now heads to the full Senate for consideration. The bill was praised by Pensacola resident Pueschel Schneier, the first to testify on the bill during public debate. She said the decision to add fluoride to water may have been valid in the 1940s, before people knew about tooth decay and cavities and proper oral health. 'But times have changed. Eighty years later, America is the land of plenty. There is no excuse for someone who claims they don't have access to a toothbrush. It boils down to personal accountability. People are responsible for making sure their children are brushing their teeth correctly and that they're eating the proper diet,' Schneier said. She did add, 'I'm sure genetics play a huge role.' The Florida Dental Association opposes the bill but did not publicly testify against it in committee Tuesday. League of Women Voters Co-President Cecile M. Scoon said her organization opposes the bill because it preempts local governments from deciding whether to add fluoride to water. The organization generally has opposed legislation curbing local government from making decisions locally. Moreover, Coon took aim at Schneier's testimony that proper health habits are ingrained in every child. 'There have been studies that have shown that despite the first speaker, not every parent is doing everything the right way. I mean, obviously, children come with all kinds of problems that we would not want to see and sometimes it's nutrition, it's their immunizations, different things. ' The bill passed the committee as Seminole County leaders voted Tuesday to stop adding fluoride to its water supply. That followed the Miami Dade County commission's decision a week ago to do the same. Utah became the first state to stop adding fluoride to its water supply. The decision was praised by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named community fluoridation of drinking water one of the 10 great public health interventions of the 20th Century because of the dramatic decline in cavities since it started in 1945. There is no government mandate, though, for community fluoridation of drinking water. The U.S. Public Health Service recommends fluoride levels for municipalities that do choose to add fluoride to community water supplies. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo recommended against community fluoridation late last year. Ladapo, whose past advice on health issues has roundly been criticized by others in the healthcare arena, saw his suggestion rejected by the group that represents Florida dentists, which countered that fluoridation is one of the 'most effective and affordable public health measures' around. Ladapo asserted a 'neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure,' citing studies that allege exposure to fluoride increases risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and lower IQs. 'It is clear more research is necessary to address safety and efficacy concerns regarding community water fluoridation,' Ladapo, who works for Gov. Ron DeSantis, said in a written statement. 'The previously considered benefit of community water fluoridation does not outweigh the current known risks, especially for special populations like pregnant women and children.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Boston Globe
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
The Signal scandal is even dumber than it looks
Advertisement That's not the only boneheaded decision revealed by this week's self-inflicted leak. It appears, from the now-published exchange, that the administration may be ignoring other basic cybersecurity protocols. Here's how. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Relying on Signal for security Signal is more secure than your average chat app, but it falls far short of military standards. 'Any normal person would have been arrested already' for discussing military operations on Signal, said Signal features end-to-end encryption that's supposed to be much more secure than standard voice and chat smartphone apps. In fact, last December, the US But the federal advisory didn't say that Signal was suitable for use in conducting airstrikes. And according to Schneier, it's not even close. For one thing, military-grade systems use their own custom-made encryption algorithms. For another, the phones they run on feature custom-made operating systems, not the standard iOS or Android software found on consumer phones. Relying on consumer-grade phones Hackers are constantly on the hunt for ways to crack iOS and Android systems. This could enable them to smuggle spyware onto a supposedly secure phone. Once the device is compromised, Signal messages could be intercepted before they were encrypted. Advertisement 'Those systems are not secure in any important sense,' said Dan O'Dowd, chief executive of Green Hills Software, a California company that makes hardened phone systems for military use. This isn't news to the Trump administration. During last year's election, the Trump campaign began using Green Hills secure phones after learning that phones used by Trump and Vice President JD Vance were attacked by China-based hackers. Yet the president's national security team failed to take the hint. Connecting one Signal-equipped phone to another is designed to be easy — maybe too easy. Hackers believed to be based in Russia have used phishing emails to trick people into connecting their Signal accounts to cybercriminals looking to steal sensitive data. NPR reports that the Pentagon last week alerted all personnel to avoid using Signal to discuss even unclassified military matters, because of the phishing threat. In addition, the German magazine Der Spiegel on Wednesday said it has uncovered mobile phone numbers, email addresses and passwords used by national security adviser Mike Waltz, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The sensitive information was found in the records of commercial data brokers and in files published by hackers on underground web sites, the magazine said. But a military-grade system isn't vulnerable this way, Schneier said. Each participant in a chat has to have a secure device and must be cleared in advance to participate in such communications. 'A military-grade encryption product is not going to have the ability to link random people to it,' Schneier said. So forget about a journalist stumbling in by accident. 'It's restricted in the mistakes it can make,' Schneier said. Advertisement Disregarding government transparency There's one more troubling aspect to the Signal affair — its possible damage to our right to know what our leaders are doing. Signal is famous for offering 'disappearing messages,' which can be programmed to delete themselves after 24 hours from every device that receives them. It's a handy way to ensure that a user's careless comments won't come back to haunt her. But it runs headlong into the government's responsibility to keep accurate records of official activities. It's not a new question, either. In 2021, the Defense Department's It's unclear whether the messages intercepted by Goldberg were intended to self-delete. But it doesn't inspire confidence when government officials make critical decisions using a technology that can automatically cover their tracks. Hiawatha Bray can be reached at
