Sigh. Not a conspiracy theorist, but they're right that naturally-occurring fluoride and the fluoride added to water systems are not the same.

Protip: when you continually call your opponents loonies without addressing the soundness of their claims, you're losing.

I am not engaging in a debate on the merits because that Clean Water Portland isn't. They're making paranoid signs so I'm making fun of their signs.

Why stop with fluoride? Let's add a multi-vitamin while we're at it.

Also, @Drunk&Write, you may not have noticed, but I did not say it was the same, just that it was something that isn't water that's in the water.

as long as we're making fun of signs, how about equal opportunity for the "crying tooth" lamenting the "apparently organized effort" to steal yard signs. Ther;s no shortage of ridiculous on either lobbying group.

Wait, how is that first sign being held up? I don't see any hands.

Yeah, we're cool, Alex. I just find it interesting that HKHP thinks it's a winning strategy to say "you must be nuts to oppose fluoridation!"

It's disenfranchising, demeaning and counterproductive, especially in a low-turnout, low-information election during which your opposition has a lot of riled-up, energized volunteers.

Again, not a conspiracy theorist, haven't fully made up my mind on this one, but JUST SAYING.

Everything you need to know about fluoride in 20 minutes:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GX0s-4AyWfI

Fluoridation is an environmental injustice that hits poor children of color the hardest.

Protect ALL kids. Vote NO.

http://afrocentricnews.com/afro/fluoridega…

Everything you need to know about fluoride in 3:33:

http://bit.ly/P5aw2n

Oh, you silly fluoride trolls. Everything you need to know about fluoride in 0:00: http://www.portlandmercury.com/binary/4b54…

I think I know who took these photos. He was piping on twitter yesterday, "Just show me one peer reviewed study that says fluoride is safe and effective!" So I did. And he, of course, dismissed it for no good reason. These antifluoridation people pretend to care about science, but they don't. They're driven by fear and ignorance. They twist science and all they have going for them is bad emotional rhetoric like this. It reminds me of Jenny McCarthy and her "mommy instinct."

Agreed, Falcone. Even though I am quite against adding fluoride to our water, some of CWP's campaigning efforts come off as alarmist and stupid.

Instead of putting placards in the hands of babies and harping about 'chemicals' every other word, they need to focus on the simple and obvious -- like the fact that blanket-medicating an entire population in order to help (negligibly, if at all) only a tiny segment of it lacks imagination and logic.

And then the whole thing about compelling us all to ingest something that only works topically. And then the fact that most of this water will go down the drain and into the environment anyway, passing nowhere near our teeth. And then the argument that azure hinted at above.

Etc., etc.

Highly relevant to this discusion:

The Family Gets Fluoridation Chemicals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUYRgoAxUyo

Speaking of their signs, they keep crawling up into my friend's yard, stealing her pro fluoride signs and replacing them with their own anti fluoride signs. When she put up a hand written sign asking them to stop they just put an anti fluoride sign in front of it. I actually wonder how many of the anti fluoride signs are in the yards of people who just don't pay much attention to their yard.

Just clicked on that last Youtube video.

HAHAHAHA

HAHAHA

Hah.

As a sufferer of chronic tendonitis, I am severely offended by what you just said, Jesse.

Remember: it's not fluoride, it's hexafluorosilicic acid CHEMICALS! Boogedyboo!

I for one get all my science from Youtube videos.

No fluoride is detected in Bull Run water."
--Portland Water Bureau (2013)

Source:
Frequently Asked Questions | Water Quality | The City of Portland, Oregon
http://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/articl…

Does Portland add fluoride to drinking water?

No fluoride is detected in Bull Run water. Portland does not add fluoride to the water. At low levels, fluoride helps prevent dental cavities. The US Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consider the fluoride levels in Portland's water sources (including groundwater) to be lower than optimal for helping to prevent dental decay. You may want to consult with your dentist about fluoride treatment to help prevent tooth decay, especially for young children.

[Note: This PWB FAQ reply says "you may want to consult with your dentist" not "please vote to add it to everyone's water even though it is well-known that they do not consent".]

Chlorination is a treatment of water.
Fluoridation is a treatment of people.

Hood River Voters Pass Measure to Keep Contaminated Fluoride from Drinking Water

The Hood River Drinking Water Protection Measure prohibits the addition of any industrial waste byproduct or any other substance that would cause the drinking water to exceed the U.S. EPA’s health based contaminant goals for toxics. Those pushing fluoridation vigorously opposed the measure since most fluoridation chemicals used in the United States are byproducts of phosphate fertilizer production and are well known to contain toxics, such as arsenic and lead, at concentrations that exceed EPA’s health based goals (ie. EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level Goals). The drinking water protection measure passed with 56% of voters supporting the measure and 42% opposing it.

Source: Oregon Citizens for Safe Drinking Water | May 20th, 2005
http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/hood-riv…

Fluoridation Chemical Accidents: http://www.actionpa.org/fluoride/chemicals… Unless otherwise noted, the chemical involved is Hydrofluosilicic Acid or a similar fluoridation chemical. When not fully investigated by the National Response Center, it can simply be called "hazardous waste" and would not show up here due to inadequate accident reporting. Accidents where the medium is listed as "drinking water" are those where the spill or accident resulted in an overdose of fluoride in the drinking water system itself. [Acute Poisoning from Water Fluoridation: http://www.fluoridealert.org/articles/fluo…]

"Inspection of public water systems and monitoring of fluoride concentrations are needed to prevent outbreaks of fluoride poisoning."
--Division of Field Epidemiology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta.
Acute fluoride poisoning from a public water system.
N Engl J Med. 1994 Jan 13;330(2):95-9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8259189

"Thousands of households had to wait almost a fortnight to be told they had drunk water containing 20 times the allowable limit of fluoride. [...] The investigation will also focus on why at least three safety devices failed at the plant, supplying homes in Brendale and Warner with 30mg/L of fluoride, when the limit is 1.5mg/L."
Damage control after fluoride blunder hits homes | The Courier-Mail | May 15, 2009
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/flourid…

Grumpy cat has competition.

Chlorination prevents disease
Fluoridation prevents disease

Chlorination prevents disease ... by making drinking water potable.

Fluoridation prevents disease - even though there have never been any will controlled, double blind studies to prove that theory - by preventing a disease caused by a person's habits ... not the water.

But why stop with fluoride? After all, the precedent has been set to use the public's drinking water as a vehicle for delivering medication. High cholesterol is a big problem in this country. Let's put a dash of statins in the water supply for that. And you know, a lot of people are probably going to be pretty depressed when their medical right to consent is robbed from them. How about some lithium? Lithium for all, I say!

(Those are actually being proposed, by the way)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmBnaJIQdU…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXue4VOZJ_…

Tamara Rubin, the Sellwood mom who earned a national reputation as a crusader against lead poisoning, is taking on a new target: fluoridated water.

Rubin says the number of children poisoned by lead could double or even quadruple if Portlanders vote next month to fluoridate the city’s Bull Run water supply, based on studies showing fluoride causes more leaching of lead into the water system and enables more lead to be absorbed by the human body.

From: "Advocate says lead, fluoride a bad brew" | Portland Tribune | April 18th, 2013
http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/15062…

Chloramine + Lead Pipes + Fluoride = Contaminated tap water.
http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2009/07/chlo…

Fluoride is not an essential nutrient according to the World Health Organization. Therefore, a deficiency will not lead to disease (including tooth decay) or illness.

What kind of doctor enforces consumption of a drug without informed consent? What kind of doctor prescribes without assessment. Has your council ever taken your blood or urine samples to determine you somehow are deficient of this non-essential element? How ridiculous!! Further, what kind of doctor recommends a chemical that is not regulated as a drug, nutrient supplement or food additive? Time to fire your councillors that are trying to play doctor without a license. They make a mockery of the practice.

...and no one's mind was changed...

Fluoridation is a 20th Century adaptation of a naturally occurring process. Fluoride is already in most waters, including Bull Run. HKHP wants to see the current level of 0.16 ppm adjusted upwards to 0.7 ppm for dental public health.

It's tasteless, odorless. If any future gullible opponents moves to Portland after the water is fluoridated won't give it a second thought.

Think about it. If any of you anti's who are not from Portland decided instead to move to Seattle, a fluoridated city, you wouldn't be giving fluoridation a second thought. Get over it.

Do you think that by making fun of signs you're going to somehow change the fact that fluoridated cities in Oregon have much worse dental health than Portland? Vancouver has been fluoridated since 1962. It hasn't helped them in 50 years. How will marginalizing Portland citizens with the integrity to stand up to City Council help fluoridated Vancouver's low income dental health problems?

Well, Tooth "Truth" says it's tasteless and odourless, so it must be harmless. LOSER.

The following are good sources of information: the Fluoride Action Network website, Declan Waugh's work, the books The Case Against Fluoride and The Fluoride Deception, the 2006 National Research Council report on fluoride in drinking water, and the peer-reviewed journal Fluoride.

CWP if the measure passes it will be time to play your trump card. Make sure the suppliers are in compliance with NSF Std 60 and all the toxicological studies that are required.

A.4 Data requirements for new or updated risk assessments
A.4.1 General requirements

For each substance requiring a new or updated risk assessment, toxicity data to be considered shall
Include, but not limited to, assays of genetic toxicity, acute toxicity (1 to 14 d exposure), short-term
toxicity (14 to 28 d exposure), subchronic toxicity (90 d exposure), reproductive toxicity, developmental
toxicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, chronic toxicity (including carcinogenicity), and human data
(clinical, epidemiological, or occupational) when available. To more fully understand the toxic potential of
the substance, supplemental studies shallbe reviewed, including, but not limited to, mode or mechanism
of action, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, sensitization, endrocrine disruption, and other endpoints,
as well as studies using routes of exposure other than ingestion. Structure activity relationships, physical
and chemical properties, and any other chemical specific information relevant to the risk assessment shall
also be reviewed.

Is this a news paper? This isn't news this is slanted spin trying to sway votes

Several scientists from the National Research Council who researched for 3 years and produced the 500 page report for the EPA: "Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review" 2006, have called for a ban on water fluoridation because of known and anticipated health damage. Senior scientists from the EPA have also called for a ban. Dr. Kathleen Thiessen, National Research Council panel member for the 2006 EPA report has written specifically on the topic in her report "General Comments on Fluoridation of Drinking Water for Prevention of Dental Caries" 2011. Here is an excerpt:

“The proposed HHS recommendation for water fluoridation at 0.7 mg/L is not adequate to protect against known or anticipated adverse effects and does not allow an adequate margin of safety to protect young children, people with high water consumption, people with kidney disease (resulting in reduced excretion of fluoride), and other potentially sensitive population subgroups….

…It is irresponsible to recommend addition of fluoride, or a particular concentration of fluoride to be added, without a comprehensive review of the substances (H2SiF6 or Na2SiF6,) that are actually added. In addition, fluoridation chemicals often contain impurities such as lead and arsenic, for which EPA has set MCLGs of zero (EPA 2006), such that a water supplier is actually adding contaminants for which the ideal maximum amount in drinking water is zero.

In summary, it is irresponsible to promote or encourage uncontrolled exposure of any population to a drug that, at best, is not appropriate for many individuals (e.g., those who do not want it, those whose water consumption is high, formula-fed infants, people with impaired renal function) and for which the risks are inadequately characterized and inadequately disclosed to the public. Elimination of community water fluoridation at the earliest possible date would be in the best interest of public health.”
http://fluorideinformationaustralia.files.…

Calcium fluoride is naturally occurring, fluorosilicic acid is not. See on the CDC site exactly where it comes from. http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/fact_sheet… Sources of Fluoride Additives

"Most fluoride additives used in the United States are produced from phosphorite rock. Phosphorite is used primarily in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizer. Phosphorite contains calcium phosphate mixed with limestone (calcium carbonates) minerals and apatite—a mineral with high phosphate and fluoride content. It is refluxed (heated) with sulfuric acid to produce a phosphoric acid-gypsum (calcium sulfate-CaSO4) slurry.

The heating process releases hydrogen fluoride (HF) and silicon tetrafluoride (SiF4) gases which are captured by vacuum evaporators. These gases are then condensed to a water-based solution of 23% FSA with the remainder as water.

Approximately 95% of FSA used for water fluoridation comes from this process. The remaining 5% of FSA is generated during the manufacture of hydrogen fluoride or from the use of hydrogen fluoride in the manufacturing of solar panels and electronics."

I find this article to be very racist. And for a newspaper to make fun of people is over the top. Mercury and hkhp you have both stooped to a new low. These are good people of our community. Shame on you.

These gases from phosphate fertilizer manufacture and aluminum production are captured because they classified as pollutants and not allowed by the EPA to be released into air, water or land, due to the harm they cause the environment, people and animals. The smoke stacks are scrubbed to remove what are toxic contaminants (often containing other heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury, chromium, cadmium, selenium, add water, put in tanker trucks, then drums and distributed to water municipalities as "fluoridation chemicals".

I've learned a couple important lessons from this discussion.

1.) People against fluoride don't read very well.

2.) People against fluoride are bigger trolls than gun nuts and Apple fanboys combined.

Alex, how does your editor allow you to ridicule your readers? Is it because he knows you can't argue with facts? How sad for you.

So grateful for award winning journalists like Christopher Bryson and Doug Schmidt, who actually take the time to do a little research.

Who's in charge of verifying Obama's birth certificates while you guys are working on defeating fluoridation efforts?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic…
Arsenic is another major concern with the toxic industrial waste which is used for fluoridation, as shown by this 2013 paper in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Policy. The first two listed authors are William Hirzy and Robert Carton, both former senior scientists at the EPA.
"The US could save $1 billion to more than $5 billion/year by using USP [US Pharmacopoeia, i.e. pharmaceutical grade] NaF [sodium fluoride] in place of HFSA [hydrofluorosilicic acid] while simultaneously mitigating the pain and suffering of citizens that result from use of the technical [industrial] grade fluoridating agents. Other countries, such as Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and Australia that use technical grade fluoridating agents may realise similar benefits by making this change."

I'm fairly sure the authors are not in favour of any kind of water fluoridation, and just went through the exercise to show the complete absurdity of government policy on this issue.

LOLWUT AT BEING SURPRISED ABOUT THE MERCURY RIDICULING ITS READERS. HAVE YOU EVER READ HIS EDITOR'S POST?!

The two chemical equations below are the last two in a set of four equations. The first two don't include hexafluorosilicic acid. Neglecting the number of molecules involved, the first equation can be read "silicon tetrafluoride plus water gives hexafluorosilicic acid plus silicon dioxide". The second equation can be read "silicon tetrafluoride plus hydrogen fluoride gives hexafluorosilicic acid". So silicon tetrafluoride gas and hydrogen fluoride gas are produced from the phosphate rock first, and hexafluorosilicic acid is produced from them, with the addition of some water. There is no hexafluorosilicic acid in the rock to be "recovered", it's the artificial product of chemical reactions.

Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 2013
Quantitative recovery of high purity nanoporous silica from waste products of the phosphate fertilizer industry
Gideon Elineema et al
"The following series of reaction equation can represent the generation process of the waste H2SiF6."
3SiF4+2H2O ==> 2H2SiF6+SiO2
SiF4+H2F2 ==> H2SiF6

Wow. Making fun of a refugee...

Alex Falcone just loves fluoride because it KILLS MERMAIDS DEAD!

jerk: a : an annoyingly stupid or foolish person
b : an unlikable person; especially : one who is cruel, rude, or small-minded
c: a racist Mercury "reporter"

Racist? You might want to check the mirror before you lob that term. (Especially the mirror that says, "Objects are closer than they appear.")

Tip: I know Alex had other intentions, but it's usually best to avoid appearing condescending towards someone's refugee status.

I'M GOING TO NEED MORE DATA ON THE FLUORIDE AND MERMAID LETHALITY SCIENCE.

Anti-fluoridation group says arsenic hitches ride on water chemicals
The Portland Tribune | May 2nd, 2013
http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/15163…
“Arsenic is a powerful toxin that has substantial health risks even at low levels,” Hirzy said. “It should not be added to Portland’s drinking water.”
Hirzy is a former leader of the EPA’s scientists union, which has raised concerns about the use of fluoride. He also is the lead author of a study on fluorosilicic acid published in February by Environmental Science & Policy.
William Hirzy, a chemist at American University in Washington, D.C., said the tested water, if matched by Portland’s, would raise arsenic levels more than 12 percent above the highest recorded levels in 2012 — and that would be enough to cause five extra cases of lung or bladder cancer each year in Portland.

Anti-fluoride group raises questions about arsenic levels in Portland drinking water
The Oregonian | May 2nd, 2013
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.s…
According to a press release issued by Clean Water Portland Thursday morning, the group had a Washington lab test samples of fluoride used to treat the water in the Oregon city of Philomath.
The results, Clean Water Portland says, show traces of arsenic. According to a chemist working with the group, if the same compound were used in Portland it would "raise arsenic rates in the city's water more than 12 percent above Portland's highest recorded arsenic levels in 2012."
Clean Water Portland executive director Kimberly Kaminsky noted that the agency's goal is to have arsenic occurring at 0 parts per billion. For Portland, that would be nearly impossible given that it is a "natural geologic contaminant," according to state officials.
That's precisely the reason that we shouldn't be adding more," Kaminsky said. "Any time we are intentionally adding chemicals to our water that contain arsenic ... it's a cause for concern."

Trying to talk sense/science/ethics to a writer for The Portland Mercury is like walking up to a cashier at WalMart or McDonald's and describing the inherent benefits of eating organic or non-GMO foods...or curbing sugar intake, etc...

Although their sign may say 'Open'...they are [ CLOSED ].
They've already sold themselves out.
Avoid. It's not worth it. [X]

The entire series of images, over 30, contain two images of African American males. By coincidence the Mercury decides to hold them up for ridicule.

A real journalist might have tried to discover who these men are before profiling them.
Let me help you. One spent 13 years in a refugee camp in Africa. The other is the Chair of the Portland NAACP’s Veteran’s Committee.

Sickening Alex. Sickening Mercury. I will boycott you and your advertisers. Racism has never been funny.

What's with all of the little 'comedians' in this town who are so eager to bend over for big business and slurp the corporate big one being poked in their little faces. Alex Falcone obviously doesn't know anything about fluoride besides the PR dribble that lobbyists put in his head. People like him and Shawn Fleek are lucky that George Carlin doesn't reach up from his grave to bitch slap their little corny faces.

How does being a veteran make someone an expert on water, fluoridation, or dental health? It doesn't. It just doesn't.

This thread is hilarious. I find the excessively long, condescending, repetitive anti-fluoride posters are TOTALLY changing MY mind!

And come on COMEDIANS. You're obviously not INTELLIGENT enough to have an informed opinion! (Unless you're anti-fluoride, then you're totes smart!)

There's been plenty of vitriol on both sides. Comedians aren't toxicologists. Dentists aren't epidemiologists. So to have paid comedians trying to explain toxicology and environmental effects seems off. Just like listening to dentists try to explain how fluoride affects other parts of your body than your teeth. Did you read the article? How is the article itself not condescending and patronizing? The article reads like a 5th grade cut down rant. How does that address the fact fluoridation hasn't worked in ANY Oregon city, it's ineffective, and we don't need it?

alex, impressive journalism. well done. kuddos. way to keep the adult conversation rolling!! (oh, and someone opposing something doesn't automatically deem them "paranoid")

There is enough fluoride in a 6oz tube of toothpaste to KILL a four-year old child. All anyone has to do, is read the "accidental ingestion" warning on a tube of toothpaste to know the dangers of fluoride.

This author may think it's all a big joke, but to the people tasked with protecting our shared ecology, fluoride chemicals are a very serious matter.

From Sierra Club:
“Sierra Club opposes fluoridation because it would degrade some of the purest drinking water in the world. Kids are already bombarded with multiple toxins from plastics, pesticides and air pollution.”

From Columbia Riverkeepers:
“What we add to our drinking water, we add to our rivers and our salmon. Fluoride is a toxic pollutant that harms salmon and other aquatic life. At a time when many families continue to rely on the Columbia’s fisheries as an important source of nutrition and employment, we are concerned about a new source of toxic pollution into the Columbia River.”

tooth decay crises are occurring in all fluoridated cities and states, http://www.FluorideNews.blogspot.com . besides bad diets, 80% of dentists refuse to treat medicaid patients. Deamonte Driver lived in a fluoridated area but after about a dozen dentists refused to treat him, two week hospital care and $250,000 bill to the taxpayers couldn't' save his live. He and several others in the news have died from the consequences of untreated tooth decay because they couldn't afford dental care. Fluoride can never save these people or the 5-year-old in the pro-fluoride mailer.

dentists should be mandated to treat more low income people. After all, they didn't make it on their own. governments and tooth decay benefiting corporations subsidize their education and profession. It's time they give back or get out of the way so Dental Therapists can do the work dentists refuse to do.

Out of 196 countries, only 27 fluoridate and only 11 for more than half their population. The U.S. fluoridates more people than the rest of the world combined. In Europe, 43 out of 48 countries don’t, accounting for 97 percent of the population. Most never started, but nations like Germany, Finland, Czech Republic and the Netherlands stopped as science kept building against the practice.

In addition to health concerns, Europeans often cite how it’s unethical to put a drug – in fluoride’s case, a known toxin - into the water supply. There’s no control over individual medical history, dose and duration of ingesting it – this one-size-fits- all violates EVERY safety protocol of drug administration. That includes informed consent – fluoridation takes that choice away from you.

Alex Falcone is good friends with Shawn Fleek, the online media organizer working for Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland. He's trying to make it sound like we're voting on adding something benign to the water system, which is coincidentally exactly what Fleek claims. Just a "little toxic" never hurt ya. Fluoride in drinking water is delivered by fluorosilicic acid, a toxic phosphate fertilizer byproduct that can legally only be distributed to toxic waste sites or municipal water systems. Making fun of moms, minorities, babies, and cats, while an extremely low thing to do in print, is not going to change that. This is the exact chemical that we are voting on whether or not to dump 1.1 million pounds of into our water system. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szL2Ofzvpcs