The Facts About Fluoride

Drinking tap water with fluoride is one of the easiest and most beneficial things you can do to help prevent cavities. Fluoride is a naturally-occurring mineral that strengthens teeth by reducing tooth decay when in drinking water.

Water fluoridation is endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which lists it as one of the top 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.

We began feeding fluoride into drinking water in 1956, but an Ohio law governing fluoridation (the process of adding fluoride to our drinking water) in public water supplies was enacted in the early 1970s to meet public health needs.

Today, we feed about 0.7 to 0.9 mg/L of fluoride into our drinking water as a liquid (hydrofluorosilicic acid) so we can carefully control the amount with our chemical feed pumps. When added to the amount of fluoride (0.1 to 0.3 mg/L) naturally found in Lake Erie, the total concentration of fluoride in the water leaving our treatment plants is approximately 1.0 mg/L which falls right in the middle range required by the Ohio EPA under Ohio Revised Code 6109.20.  

Fluoride is a “conservative chemical.” In other words, it does not react with other chemicals typically found in drinking water. Therefore, the amount of fluoride in the water that leaves the plant is typically what you will see at your kitchen or bathroom sink.

As we do with all drinking water regulations, Cleveland Water adheres to the rules and regulations of Ohio EPA which has regulatory oversight over public water systems in Ohio.