01/03/2026
SOUTH CAROLINA - "A handful of South Carolina legislators want to ban fluoride in public drinking water. A pair of bills introduced in the past year are challenging the widely accepted use of fluoride as a tool for better dental health.
Sen. Carlisle Kennedy, R-Lexington, and Rep. Lee Gilreath, R-Anderson, sponsored the fluoride legislation, filing separate bills that would prohibit utilities from adding the cavity-fighting mineral to water distributed to millions of people across the state.
The South Carolina legislation has been filed as fluoride bans have been enacted in Utah and Florida and amid criticism by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
About 92 percent of South Carolina residents served by water systems get fluoride in their drinking water."