Fluoride Group Clears First Hurdle Proponents Free To Collect Signatures After Council Approves Ballot Title

If its supporters can collect enough signatures, fluoridation will be on a citywide ballot this November.

The Spokane City Council voted Monday to approve a ballot title that will allow People for Healthy Teeth, a local pro-fluoridation group, to circulate a petition to put the issue before voters.

The question of whether to add fluoride to city drinking water has been argued for 50 years, and twice - in 1969 and 1984 - its opponents won at the ballot box.

Now, supporters will have another chance if they can collect 8,500 signatures by mid-July.

Councilwoman Roberta Greene said it was an issue best decided by the voters.

“Regardless of personal feelings, the council is obligated to let the citizens group come forward with the signatures,” Greene said.

Council members made some minor adjustments to the title’s wording, removing language they felt was biased toward fluoridation proponents, before approving it 6-0. Councilman Steve Eugster was absent.

The council had the option of waiving the petition process and simply placing the item on the ballot, an action preferred by People for Healthy Teeth. Now, the group must rely on a professional signature gathering organization to scour Spokane’s shopping centers and malls to find enough fluoride supporters by the deadline.

“We are prepared to go forward and gather signatures,” said Dr. Mary Smith, a dentist and member of People for Healthy Teeth. “We would prefer to use that time to better educate the public.”

While fluoridating water is endorsed by the state board of health and is widely accepted in the medical community as a cheap and effective method for preventing tooth decay, it is bitterly opposed in some quarters.

Opponents lined up to speak against both the ballot title, technically the only issue before the council, and the practice of fluoridation in general.

“The ballot title is flawed,” said Betty Fowler, founder of the Safe Water Coalition of Washington State. “It does not say what sort of fluoride we will be adding to the drinking water. Is this another attempt to defraud the public?”

A correct ballot title, Fowler said, would say the city is introducing “an industrial waste poison” to the city’s water system.

Robert Stockton said fluoridation violates his right to choose what he drinks.

“I might think vitamin A is great stuff, but I wouldn’t have the audacity to suggest we make everyone drink it,” he said. `All I want in my water, basically, is water.”