This Preventative Has No Downside Benefits Are Clear Fluoride In The Water Is Safe And Effective.

As a practical matter, fluoridating Spokane’s drinking water is the cheapest and safest way to prevent tooth decay and the costs associated with it.

As a matter of personal choice and fear of “mass medication,” some people beg to differ. “All I want in my water, basically, is water,” said one protester at a Spokane City Council meeting Monday night, during which the council allowed a pro-fluoridation group to collect signatures to place the issue on the November ballot.

There’s no such thing as tap water made up solely of hydrogen and oxygen. Manganese, lead and iron are just a few of the elements commonly found in tap water. Chlorine is added to water to kill microorganisms. All of these elements could be toxic if ingested in large quantities. But what makes something poisonous is the amount, not the substance. The recommended amount of fluoride is 0.8 to 1 part per million. The National Research Council has said that at 0.8 ppm one would have to drink about 828 gallons of water in one sitting to get a fatal dose. The water would kill you first.

The benefits are undeniable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called fluoridation one of the 20th century’s greatest health advances. It has reported a sharp decline in tooth decay since 1950. In the early years, the CDC estimated that fluoridation prevented 60 percent of tooth decay that would’ve occurred otherwise. Those numbers are down around 25 percent due to advances in dentistry, widespread use of fluoride toothpastes and the use of fluoridated water to process foods.

Is that percentage still high enough to justify the expense? After start-up costs, fluoridation costs about 50 cents per person per year. That’s $40 if you live to age 80. A single filling costs more than that. In addition, poorer families that cannot afford such alternatives as tablets, rinses and regular visits to the dentist benefit tremendously. From 1995 to 1996, the CDC and Louisiana’s health department studied the dental health of young children in low-income families. They found Medicaid-eligible children in non-fluoridated areas were three times more likely to receive decay-related dental treatment and expensive operating room care. And remember, we all pay for Medicaid.

Just as mandatory safety belts keep fatality and insurance rates down, fluoridation keeps medical costs down. We need only surrender a drop of freedom for a steady stream of benefits.