JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri is seeing a spike in the number of cities debating whether to stop adding fluoride to drinking water.

Typically, Department of Natural Resources officials say, one or two communities a year notify the state of their plans to remove the cavity-preventing mineral from their water supplies. So far this year, the agency reports at least seven towns are mulling the idea.

Osage Beach is the latest to consider it . In a social media post last week, Michael Harmison, mayor of the Lake of the Ozarks tourist city of about 5,100 residents, asked for comments about plans there to discontinue the addition of fluoride to the city's water system, citing the same concerns voiced by U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. about the safety of the mineral.

Harmison said recent

See Full Page