Comments

1
You know who doesn't like fluoride? Two groups, crazy people and people who hate poor children. Ask yourself, which one are you?
2
It's WATER. Use the same amount of money and hand out free fluoride tablets, give free dental visits to schools, offer to brush kids teeth for them. But for fucks sake, let's keep water as pure as possible - we don't have many basic elements, it'd be nice if we kept our public supply as pure as possible.

I'm not anti-fluoride, I'm anti forcing-supplements-down-your-throat-whether-you-want-them-or-not-by-adding-them-to-something-you-have-to-drink-to-survive.
3
Not worth noting that the "minority opinion" was one guy out of twelve? Interesting lens here. Will the Merc be endorsing on the ballot items coming up in May?
4
"Use the same amount of money and hand out free fluoride tablets, give free dental visits to schools, offer to brush kids teeth for them. "

None of those are as effective as fluoridated water.
5
"offer to brush kids teeth for them" I think the Holly See had that as a program for a while. Now there's all kind of lawsuits and kids in therapy. Maybe try something else?
6
The estimated $5M startup costs would be gone in about two weeks if we reallocated that to visits from dental hygienists to our schools.

I've said this before in other forums. My kids have very healthy teeth - no cavities on any of their adult teeth. Why? Because we have great dental coverage, and the ability to pay for keeping their teeth healthy, and we ride herd on them to take care of their teeth. We are the lucky ones. Being entitled enough to make sure my kids' teeth are healthy does not equal being entitled enough to refuse a safe and effective option for others. It's classic "pull the ladder up" behavior to do so.
7
A few toothbrushes and enough toothpaste to last a year costs a pretty nominal amount. What, $20 a year?

Are you telling me that most of these poor, underprivileged children don't ingest $20-worth of sodas and candy per year? Bullshit. Anyway, even if they don't, the problem isn't the lack of fluoride in the water, it's the lacking competency of their parent(s) to make them brush their teeth more than once every few months.

pdxMB's comment is a logical one, but the main reason his/her kids have great teeth isn't because of great dental coverage or luck, it's because he/she "ride[s] hard on them to take care of their teeth", which is code for making them brush their teeth every day, which any parent north of worthless would do.
8
Yah, I had fluoridated water growing up and my mother had us take fluoride tablets. Now my teeth are stained and I still got two cavities.

After moving here where there is no fluoridated water, my dentist noticed a dark spot on one of my xrays and said it was the beginning of decay and we should keep an eye on it to see if it turned into a cavity. So I chewed on some xylitol tablets, flossed/brushed with fluoride-free toothpaste, and last time when I went in the spot was gone.

My point is that I just don't think there's enough proof that fluoride is this magical fix for oral health to add it to our public water supply. If we're truly concerned for those who can't afford dental care, I feel like there's a better program we could implement rather than blanketing an entire community with a supplement.

Portlanders tend to be Vitamin D deficient. Those who can't afford healthy food tend to be Iron and Calcium deficient. Should we add that stuff to the public water supply too? Or maybe we can just keep water as water and find other ways to give people the option to keep themselves healthy.
9
Oh look...science says fluoride is a good idea again. Smart.
10
There is NO DENTAL HEALTH CRISIS IN PORTLAND!

Oregon's rate of untreated dental decay: 44%

UNFLUORIDATED Portland's rate of untreated dental decay: 21%. We actually bring the statewide average down to 35%!

According to the CDC’s Water Fluoridation Statistics, the percentage of persons receiving fluoridated water in Oregon is 22.6%, making Oregon the least fluoridated state. But what about states with worse dental health numbers than Oregon???

Louisiana, with an untreated decay rate of 42% has 41% of its population drinking fluoridated water. Arizona, with an untreated decay rate of 40% has 57% of its population drinking fluoridated water. New Mexico, with an untreated decay rate of 37% has 77% of its population drinking fluoridated water. And Texas, with the highest untreated decay rate of 43% has 80% of its population drinking fluoridated water. Kentucky, the state who sits just ahead of Oregon in its dental health numbers with an untreated decay rate of 34.6% has a whopping 99.9% of its population drinking fluoridated water! New York, who sits just ahead of them with an untreated decay rate of 33% has 75% of its population drinking fluoridated water.

The numbers posted off the CDC’s own website suggest NO correlation between the percentage of persons drinking fluoridated water with a lowered rate of untreated dental decay.
11
The Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, the Organic Consumers Association, and Columbia Riverkeeper have all opposed fluoridation.

While the City Club was endorsing fluoridation today Utah Governor Gary Herbert just signed a bill that requires chemical companies to fully disclose all the chemicals they are dumping into Utah’s water along with the toxic fluoride.

http://www.dmlawfirm.com/utah-halts-fluori…
12
And all THESE groups, besides City Club, support fluoride: http://healthykidshealthyportland.org/supp…

That's including lots and lots of dentists, doctors and public health agencies.

And Portland is the LAST major US city to implement fluoridated water. Can anyone point to the harm that fluoride has wreaked anywhere else?

I think the majority of people opposed to fluoride don't actually understand the plight of people experiencing poverty in our city.
13
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face? Do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? Ice cream? Children's ice cream!...You know when fluoridation began?...1946. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.

- A Famous Movie Character Who is Obviously Crazy
14
add fluoride to soda
15
I'll just drink a bunch of fluorosilicic acid. F*** brushing my teeth! It's a miracle chemical solution!
16
The saddest thing about Portland's latest round of the fluoridation wars is that otherwise rational people/organizations freak out about fluoride and lose all credibility. There is no dental health crisis in Portland? Please try to explain that to my Portland native friends who have missing teeth and numerous painful dental experiences.
17
I'm curious what studies have been done to show how much water vs soda (or other sugary drinks) is consumed by the low income children and adults that this is supposed to help. I make less than 14,000 a year and have no dental insurance. I recently went to a dental college for a cleaning after not having one for over 10 years. I had no cavities, even after 10 years of no exposure to fluoride other than toothpaste.

Is this scientific evidence? No, but I don't need or want to be "medicated" (poisoned) by my drinking water, which I usually consume 8 glasses a day of, because of others who decide they would rather drink soda, chocolate milk, Sunny D, etc. I choose to avoid excess sugar in my diet and stay somewhat healthy thanks to that common sense. I don't want chemicals added to my drinking water, gardening water supply, bathing water supply, etc.

Put that 5 million into education and maybe these children can learn to make better eating choices than their parents before them.

Oh, and remember when doctors used to recommend cigarettes? Yea, just because a doctor or dentist says its fine does not make it so.
18
Is there evidence that fluoride does NOT protect teeth, is NOT safe for the environment, and is NOT safe for human consumption? If you don't watch this video, you have no business voting in this election: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PYej_OgZHE
19
It's amazing how the fluoride debate has the power to turn otherwise smart sympathetic liberals into raving mad conservative libertarians with a complete lack of sympathy or solidarity or trust in science.
20
Spindles there is evidence that fluoridated water is not good for the environment. Water from fluoridated water supplies finds it way through waste-water treatment and into our water supply. The Sierra club knows it, and anyone who knows how to search scientific journal databases knows it. How many surface water specialists has the city consulted with on this round of fluoridation talks before trying to implement this? Zero. I don't buy into that hokey feeling ingesting fluoridated water will kill us science, but I do think that dumping any chemical into our water supply is a BAD idea, and shouldn't be done without proper long term risk assessment studies by the city. It's irresponsible to do so otherwise, and I don't particularly care how many municipalities in the US have already done this, I live in Portland, and Portland has a great opportunity to do this properly, if it is decided it should be done at all.
21
As for proof that fluoride doesn't do much, Spindles offered a pretty good snapshot of that. Especially when you compare other countries that have BANNED fluoride in water, and whose rates of untreated decay have fallen faster than those in the good ol' USofPharma and remain on par after decades of lack of "treatment".
Let's spend the $5M (or $7M, depending on who you ask) + $500K / year on direct intervention and education instead.
Let the industrialists figure out for themselves what to do with their toxic sludge.
22
FLUORIDE IS A WASTE OF TAX MONEY

In addition to being ineffective for teeth and dangerous to health, fluorde is extremely wasteful of tax money.
People drink only 1/2% of the water they use, so for every $1000 of fluoride chemical added to water, $995 is directly wasted down the drain in toilets, showers, dishwashers, etc., $5 is consumed in water by the people, and less than $0.50 (fifty cents) is consumed by children, the target group for this outdated practice.

That would be comparable to buying one gallon of milk, using six-and-one-half drops of it, and pouring the rest of the gallon in the sink.

FLUORIDE --- POLLUTION
HYDROFLUOSILICIC ACID, the chemical used in drinking water, is flushed directly from the industrial smokestacks. It is not processed or cleaned in any way, but is pumped into a tanker truck and sold to communities. It is labeled by the government as a toxic waste product.
A company CEO would be arrested immediately if they dumped their toxic waste fluoride into a river. The only way they can do it legally is to run it through the community drinking water system first. It is an absolutely insane condition.

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