Fluoridate, But Let Citizens Lead Way

State Sen. Pat Thibaudeau is using the wrong method in her proposal to require Washington towns and cities to fluoridate their water supplies. She clearly has the right idea, though.

Spokane and other communities that don’t already add fluoride to their water, should start. The record in support of fluoridation is too convincing for 50-year-old scare stories to keep depriving citizens of sound, preventive dental health care.

For a change to happen, however, it must start with informed, citizen buy-in. A directive issued from the far side of the state would only backfire. Fluoridation foes would have a referendum on the ballot before you could say “Open wide.”

Thibaudeau’s impatience is understandable. Research into fluoride’s role in reducing tooth decay has roots that go back nearly a century. It’s been 55 years since Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first American city to fluoridate its drinking water supply. Today nearly two-thirds of Americans have fluoride in their water - some of it naturally occurring but most because it’s added.

With that much experience to draw on there is overwhelming confirmation that fluoridation is safe, effective, efficient and economical. Credible research repeatedly refutes persistent but unsubstantiated claims of health risks.

Still, some opponents say too little is known.

In fact, a great deal is known.

It’s known, for instance, that proper levels of fluoride in drinking water lower the incidence of cavities in permanent teeth by 17 to 40 percent.

It’s known that avoiding one filling saves the cost of a lifetime of fluoridation.

It’s known that none of the alternative ways of dispensing fluoride matches the ease, reliability and economy of water fluoridation.

No wonder virtually all health-care professionals and organizations strongly endorse fluoridation.

But a directive from Olympia will not get Spokane residents to approve fluoridation. If anything it will stir resentment and set the cause back.

The impetus has to come from the people - most likely parents who want an effective and cheap means of dental health for their children.

Numerous nearby communities - from Sandpoint to Seattle - have rejected the groundless fears and fluoridate their water with no adverse consequences.

But Thibaudeau and others who want to force the process with a state mandate need to heed public skepticism. They also need to consider that in places like Yakima and Pasco, science has prevailed over paranoia. Citizens there have recently approved local fluoridation without the state’s demanding it.

In 1968, voters in Spokane also approved an advisory measure on the issue, but overturned it in a referendum a year later. It returned to the ballot in 1984 but lost again. That history shouldn’t discourage us in the year 2000.

The intervening years simply supply that much more evidence to confirm the health professionals’ claims and to contradict opponents’ desperate warnings.

The way for Spokane residents finally to realize the benefits of fluoridation is for those who understand its value to organize themselves, talk rationally with their friends and neighbors, tap into the expert advice and the compelling record of research on the subject and bring the issue affirmatively to the ballot themselves.