How Salt Lake County plans to respond to Utah laws banning fluoride, certain flags

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Salt Lake County plans to end water fluoridation and revise flag policies to comply with new Utah laws taking effect next month.
HB81 bans the fluoridation of public drinking water.
HB77 prohibits all but a few approved flags from being flown on public buildings.

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake County is moving ahead with plans to end the fluoridation of drinking water and rescind its policy for which flags can be flown to comply with new state laws that will take effect next month.

The bills in question are HB81, which bans cities from adding fluoride to public water systems; and HB77, which prohibits all but a few approved flags from flying on public buildings and in classrooms. The latter was widely seen as an effort to prevent cities and counties from flying gay pride flags, though the sponsor said it is meant to ensure political neutrality in schools and city buildings. Both bills take effect May 7.

Salt Lake County first voted to add fluoride — a mineral that is used to prevent tooth decay — to the water system in 2003, but the Salt Lake County Council on Tuesday advanced a resolution to repeal that ordinance when HB81 takes effect.

Although the council didn't discuss the potential benefits or downsides of fluoridated water, Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton said she reviewed data from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services on cavities for minors in 2023 and said the difference between Salt Lake County and Utah County — which does not add fluoride — wasn't huge.

"My reason for supporting this was a medical freedom reason, rather than ... public health," she said.

Still, she noted that Salt Lake County had about 0.22 teeth filled per child, compared to about 0.24 teeth per child in Utah County. "It's not as huge of a difference as maybe some may think," she said.

The council also advanced a resolution to rescind its policy on the public display of flags, given that it will soon be superseded by HB77. The county's policy currently only allows some official flags to be flown publicly on county flagpoles but allows departments to craft their own policy for displaying flags in nonpublic workspaces.

HB77 prohibits employees from displaying any nonapproved flag on government property, including nonpublic workspace.

Both resolutions advanced Tuesday and await final approval from the County Council, which meets again on April 29.

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