July 26, 2010 in Idaho

Sandpoint to stop fluoridating water

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Sandpoint will quit adding fluoride to the municipal water system that also serves communities from Kootenai to Dover.

Last week’s 4-2 vote by the Sandpoint City Council followed comments by more than a dozen fluoride opponents, some of whom said they were being medicated against their will, the Bonner Daily Bee reported.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists fluoridation of public water supplies as one of the “10 great public health achievements of the 20th century,” along with such things as seat belts, vaccines and anti-smoking campaigns. It is credited with greatly reducing tooth decay.

Of Americans served by public water systems, about 69 percent drink fluoridated water, according to 2006 statistics from the CDC. That compared to 31 percent in Idaho and 63 percent in Washington.

Fluoride is added to water supplies in Lewiston and Bonners Ferry, Idaho, but not in Spokane or Coeur d’Alene.

Spokane County voters most recently rejected fluoridation in 2000.

Seattle voted to fluoridate its water 40 years ago.

One comment on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  nyscof on July 26 at 10:57 a.m.

  The American Dental Association is a union that represents the best interests of dentists - dentists who don’t want to treat Medicaid patients, 80% of them don’t. So children in the US have died from the consequences of untreated tooth decay and our emergency rooms are flooded with people with extensive dental pain and infections costing ten times the amount of a simple filling. However, the taxpayer picks up the tab. 130 million Americans don’t have dental insurance.
  
  No human is, or ever was, fluoride deficient. Too many are dentist deficient. In order to stave off what really needs to be done - mandate that every dentist treat more low-income people, organized dentistry promotes fluoridation which gives the illusion of caring about the poor people who aren’t welcomed in their dental chairs while also lobbying against allowing viable alternatives such as Dental Therapists.

  
  The Centers for Disease Control does not study fluoridation. CDC employees are hired to promote fluoridation. There is no government agency tasked with overseeing fluoridation. The companies that provide the fluoridation chemicals will not attest to their product’s safety and effectiveness in fighting tooth decay. That’s one of the reasons Selmer Tennessee stopped fluoridation.
  

  
  Adverse health effects of fluoride http://www.FluorideAction.Net/health