Fluoride in water becoming less common
By Lizette Alvarez, New York Times
MIAMI — A growing number of communities are choosing to stop adding fluoride to their water systems, even though the federal government and federal health officials maintain their full support for a measure they say provides a 25 percent reduction in tooth decay nationwide.
Earlier this month, Pinellas County, on Florida’s west coast, voted to stop adding fluoride to its public water supply after starting the program seven years ago. The county joins about 200 jurisdictions from Georgia to Alaska that have chosen to end the practice in the last four years, motivated both by tight budgets and by skepticism about its benefits.
Eleven small cities or towns have opted out of fluoridating their water this year, including Fairbanks, Alaska, which acted after much deliberation and a comprehensive evaluation by a panel of scientists, doctors and dentists. The panel concluded that in Fairbanks, which has relatively high concentrations of naturally occurring fluoride, the extra dose no longer provided the help it once did and may, in fact, be harmful.
It is a view that also was shared by four out of seven commissioners in Pinellas County who first raised the proposal as a cost cutting measure.
“I’m in opposition to putting a medical treatment into the public drinking water supply without a vote of the people who drink that water,” said Norm Roche, a newly elected Republican county commissioner who spent 10 years doing policy research for the county Water Department and who led the turnaround effort. “We had a dozen to 15 doctors, dentists, dental hygienists and chemists here who want us to continue this practice but who could not agree themselves on how best to use fluoride.”
Some 700,000 people — 75 percent of the county — will be affected by the vote. The rest receive water from a different source.
Fluoridation Opposition is Scientific, Respectable & Growing
More than 3,825 professionals (including 328 dentists) urge that fluoridation be stopped citing scientific evidence that ingesting fluoride is ineffective at reducing tooth decay and has serious health risks. See statement: http://www.fluoridealert.org/professionals-statement.aspx
Eleven US EPA unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals are calling for a moratorium on fluoridation.
The CDC reports that 225 less communities adjusted for fluoride between 2006 and 2008. About 100 US and Canadian communities rejected fluoridation since 2008.
In 2011 the following stopped fluoridation in the US: Marcellus and Mt.Clemens, MI; Fairbanks and Palmer, Alaska; Spring Hill, Lawrenceburg & Hohenwald, TN; Philomath, OR; Pottstown, PA; College Station, TX; Spencer, Indiana; Naples, NY, Pinellas County and Tarpon, Florida. In Canada: Lake Shore, Ontario; Calgary, Slave Lake and Taber Alberta; Flin Flon, Manitoba. In New Zealand: New Plymouth and Taumarunui.
Many cities are considering stopping fluoridation including New York City
Modern science shows that ingesting fluoride (neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth) does not reduce tooth decay but does expose individuals to fluoride’s adverse health effects see http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health
Fluoride hardens outer enamel by topical means alone according to the US Centers for Disease Control
The full employment bill for dentists.
I am surprised the proponents didn’t claim flouride also causes global warming.
I am one of the rare people who have been medically identified as intolerant of fluoride. When water district added it to our drinking water we had to install an $8000.00 whole-house system to reduce (not eliminate) my exposure through bathing, and a reverse-osmosis system in remove all fluoride from our drinking and cooking water.
Anyone with chronic gum, skin and/or digestive issues should avoid all contact with fluoride for a week or two and see if it helps. It may be that medicating entire communities through drinking water is making a whole lot of people besides me sick.
Sodium Flouride is poisen to the human body—bone cancer is gum disease autism it is very bad for the human brain…