WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (WFLA) — The Winter Haven City Commission voted Tuesday to stop adding fluoride to drinking water after a lengthy public comment period where residents shared health concerns.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to remove the fluoride by January 1, or on a date “as soon as reasonably practical thereafter.”

The resolution cited a federal court decision that “expressed concerns regarding the effects of fluoride in public water supply.” The court ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to research the effects of fluoridated water and crack down on regulating it.

For many commission members and audience members, the issue at hand was government overreach.

“The government really should not be involved in healthcare, or what goes into the bodies of citizens,” Mayor Pro Tem Brian Yates said, after hinting that fluoride in the water supply and his hyperthyroidism may be correlated. “Those really should be left up to the patient and the (healthcare) provider.”

Yates later denied that a reported 9,000 children face significant barriers to accessing fluoride because of existing public health services. Commissioner Brad Dantzler suggested giving some of the estimated $48,000 saved by adopting the resolution to charities that can provide dental health products.

Commissioner Clifton E. Dollison, who was one of the two dissenting votes, along with Mayor Nathaniel J. Birdsong, Jr., said he may be “the poster child” for the benefits of fluoridated water.

“My mother had nine children. We grew up poor, lived in a project. I never saw a dentist until I was an adult,” Dollison said. “I went to the dentist, got my first checkup … he said, ‘You do not have a cavity in your head. You must have lived in a place where there was fluoride’.”

Removing fluoride would be doing away with something beneficial to “those less fortunate” in the community, according to Dollison.

Dantzler said, in response to correspondence with dental professionals, that city commissioners acknowledge that fluoride is beneficial for dental health, but they have concerns about what may happen when it “gets in the gut.”

The commissioner cited concerns posed by 2024 Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and falsely stated that President-Elect Donald Trump named him to a high-ranking health policy position. Multiple residents repeated this during public comment.

“I’ll tell you that after the recent election, President Trump has named Mr. Kennedy to be his H-something-something director, and Mr. Kennedy has made it well known and has publicly said that he wants fluoride out of the water around the entire country,” Dantzler said. “So this issue, we may be at the front of it, but this issue is coming just based upon current events and what’s going on in Washington D.C.”

As pointed out by Dantzler and some public commenters, the discussion echoed those during meetings in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is reminiscent of what happened with COVID,” Dantzler said. “All four of us, with exception of Commissioner Dollison, were here during COVID and asked to make medical decisions on things that were very complicated, and we don’t completely understand.”

Winter Haven resident Hannah Bush described purchasing a reverse-osmosis filter to remove perceived toxins from her family’s drinking water, but said it wasn’t enough to get rid of the fluoride. She also took issue with the chemical being used in dental health products.

“I can get false teeth if needed. I only have one brain,” Bush said.

In September, a federal judge in California ruled the environmental protection agency must strengthen regulations on fluoride in drinking water, saying levels that are too high could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.

“Now if the EPA comes out and says it’s all fine, we will add it back in, but as it stands right now, I think we made the right decision to protect children,” Dantzler said.

Is fluoride a “toxic” chemical? Why is it added to drinking water?

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

In August, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

A federal judge later cited that study in ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.