Does this mean that all modern-day Jewish dentists are akin to nazi sympathizers? I'm Jewish and my dad was a dentist and I'd like to know so I can turn him in if necessary. Thanks.

Conspiracy army bait, Steve. I'm very disappointed in you.

Wow, the Mercury just hit rock bottom.

I'm the online organizer for the Healthy Kids Healthy Portland campaign. I have a scoreboard in my office for the number of times this claim has surfaced since I started in late January. It currently sits at 67

@ George Hayduke

Actually, we hit rock bottom on November 17, 2008. Try to keep up.

Silly people how many work for HKHP that posted on that twitter. Let me count.

I came out as pro-floiuride last night. I was nearly crucified by my friends and my boyfriend hasn't talked to me all day. I said that I was willing to listen to anything anti-flouride as long as it came from a scientific journal or reputable website. My friends never found anything, so I'm sticking to my guns.

Shout outs to the people who think the fucking Portland Mercury has an official position on fluoride. You're the bluest color in the "the media has an inherent, hivemind bias" rainbow. Say whatsup to your buddies who think MSNBC is a propaganda arm of the President.

Shawn Fleek, I noticed the home page for Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland has taken down their graphic that stated that there is a dental health crisis in Oregon because 35% of children statewide are suffering from untreated dental decay. Now tell me, is the reason for this because everyone has figured out that non-fluoridated Portland's rate of untreated decay is 21%, well below the national average of 29%, and well below the rest of the state, who sat at 44% untreated decay?

So Shawn, now that a draft version of the undated Oregon Smile Survey has come out showing across-the -board dental improvements in Oregon over the last five years, are you guys going to amend your home page with the updated rate of untreated decay which is now 20% statewide?

I am a member of the marching band that protested.....

I am just against being medicated against my will. Fluoride should be applied topically not...consumed. As someone who does not want to be medicated against their will, I would have to purchase a rediculously expensive filtration system to get that shiz out. I wouldnt be able to drink anything outside my house. Besides most of the water coming out of our faucet isnt even used to drink. So it's a waste of money if you ask me.

I do not refute the benefits of using fluoride. I think there are side effects that have not been confirmed/disproved without a bias. I do not feel safe enough it to be ok with drinking it for the REST OF MY LIFE.

It is not my fault that some parents don't raise their kids right (brushing, healthy diet). Education is the optimal way to promote health and well-being.

So if you like fluoride..Awesome..take it yourself..don't force others to do it.

@Christine you realize that Portland Water naturally contains quite a bit of fluoride right? Do you also realize that it is not a "medication"? If you really care about fluoride in your water I suggest you get that filter. Also do you ever drink bottled water or soft drinks? Most are made with municipal water and a lot of that is fluoridated which means so are they.

Portland's kids have a lower incidence of tooth decay than the statewide average? That's great! It sounds like Portland parents might be more fastidious about oral hygiene and what their kids consume than their statewide counterparts.

Think about how much those numbers will improve with fluoridated water!

Rates, proportion, scale: these are hard concepts for humans to understand. Not impossible, but, without education the natural path for human thinking is to draw things in terms of absolutes.

#Christine- THAT. THAT is an opinion I would have liked to hear last night. Thank you for finally giving me pause.

@ blank dude....Yea...naturally occuring fluoride....the stuff they want to dump into our water is a waste by-product...if you have a little chemistry backgroud..Fluoride is a negatively charged ion that bonds with a metallic element. For example Sodium Fluoride is an ionic compound, when it hits the water they separate and that is how fluoride is added to the water.

I want to know exactly how they are adding it to our system..and where it came from.

I find it very suspicious that originally they were just gonna put it in our water without going to public vote.

@Ophelia....Yea this is a weird issue. I'm not trying to convince anyone that fluoride is bad....well, because I don't really know. There are some radical thoughts of its negative effects. The one I really like is the calcification of the pineal gland...if you know any "spiritual" people, AKA super hippies, they will tell you your pinneal gland is like your third eye.

I can't find any real studies that show what happens....But i do know people who have a real opened third eye..and its pretty amazing..

Sorry for the hippy talk...this is why it should be a choice...ya know, like being able to marry whoever you want or aborting a baby(or not).

Protests are weird...this was actually the first time I've been involved in one. If I wasnt too busy playing my saxophone I would have totally talked to you :)

If you don't want to drink fluoride, you should already own the filtration system because there is already fluoride in Portland's water. That's also why it isn't "medication" - it's already there.

@shawn...please let me clarify:

Naturally occuring fluorine is Okay....fluorine and fluoride are two DIFFERENT things...fluorine is the neutral element..and fluoride is fluorine, but it's a negatively charged ion. You kind of have to understand a little bit of chemistry to understand this. (if there are any chemists out there, please correct me if im wrong)

I have an issue with not knowing exactly how fluoride would be added to our water and where it will come from. This is something that you guys should really consider

for me to purchase the filtration system would be over 1000$..so if the city of portland is into buying me one of those...then fluoridate the water.

I agree fluorine that is allready there is not a medication..but when more is added to it and that Im supposed to think its good for me...I consider it medication.

"I'm not sure if that is a fact or not."

... love that line. Love it. Scientific illiteracy and the inability to fact-check in the era of Google.

I've heard that if say "Bloody mary" into a mirror three times, the moon landing was an inside job by false flag chemtrails to assassinate Kurt Cobain.

I'm not sure if that is a fact or not. But if it is that's messed up.

Anywho..i gotta do other stuff today...

again, I'm not trying to convince you all that it's bad for you...I just really really really think it should be a choice. We don't need to fight about this :( if anyone really wants to talk to me..then i guess fb message me.

have a nice day :)
-Christine

Here's a scientific study on the pros and cons in terms of health effects.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/p…
I still say don't make everybody have something like that in there water. Whats the next thing thats going to go into the tap?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/p…

"Whats the next thing thats going to go into the tap?"

Yeah, next thing you know they're going to have dogs and horses making love in there.

I can see your point from a "I don't anything added to my water" perspective -- but I'd recommend not using the slippery slope "what's the next thing to go into the tap" argument right after that.

That type of logical fallacy has been thrown around a lot in the gay marriage debate. I'd hate to hear "if we put fluoride in the water, that will lead to a man-on-dog weddings".

Not trying to be a dick -- like I said, I think you've got ground to stand on with the first part. I also appreciate you sharing the link. Just avoid the fallacy part. That'll make your argument stronger :)

@Ophelia, Considering just how much research has already been done showing a justifiable reason for concern that fluoride poses health risks, I'm not sure how hard your friend is looking.

There's the 2006 National Acadamy Of Sciences report, the 500-page meta review that highlighted numerous studies linking low fluoride levels in drinking water to a range of human health risks. It lead to the EPA's scientists union to formally oppose water fluoridation.

There's the Harvard meta analysis of over 30 studies conducted in countries that do not artificially fluoridate their water that found an association between fluoride exposure from naturally occurring fluoride in water with reduced IQ in children, even in area's where the concentration of fluoride in the water was only 2.7ppm.

There's was the 1989 study published in North American Journal of Fisheries Management; "“Evidence for Fluoride Effects on Salmon Passage at John Day Dam, Columbia River" that showed fluoride negatively affected salmon population and migration at concentraions of .03 ppm - .05ppm

Add to that the York and Iowa studies, the two best studies to date on fluoride's effectiveness show that there is no statistically significant effect on tooth decay when fluoride is added to the water.

DHHS proposed in 2011 to change the recommended level of fluoride in drinking water to 0.7 ppm from 0.7–1.2 ppm because of fluoride association with dental fluorisis, and the EPA is reviewing the maximum amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water, which currently is set at 4.0 ppm.

To date there have been no well-controlled, double blind studies showing fluoridated water is effective.

By the way, who was the man who really got the Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland campaign rollin'? This guy: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/th…

For anyone (I'm looking at you Shawn) who wants to make the claim that there's already fluoride in Portland's water ... um, no there's not.

http://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/articl…

Tweets by guys named "Jonny" are never admissible in the court of public opion anyway.

Jeeze, they add chlorine, ammonia, and sodium hydroxide to the water and it doesn't get this level of attention. Wonder if Christine considers that stuff "medication."

@spindles according the this 2012 Portland Water Bureau 2012 Drinking Water Quality Report levels as high as 0.16 ppm were measured in Portland's water. So yes in fact there is Fluoride in our water. http://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/articl…

@spindles

I'm also sorry to rain on your "PANIC!!!" parade, but perhaps when you list those alarming numbers maybe you might want to also add how much fluoride the city is actually planning on putting in there? You know... just for fairness?

Not arguing either way because I don't have much of an opinion, but I'm curious -- if there's already quite a lot of fluoride in the city water, as Shawn says, then why are we spending so much to add more (which, I've also heard, will still not be a significant amount, in terms of PPM).

On the fun side, you've all inspired me to research the fluoridation of cities I grew up in, and it turns out neither city (including Hillsboro, OR from age 6 on) had fluoridated water while I lived there. Which is neat because that means I got that delicious strawberry fluoride foam at the dentist (a privilege, for sure).

@Econoline, the water quality report you linked to tested for contaminants (fluoride is labeled as a contaminant) in 2011. It shows background levels of naturally occurring fluoride between .025 ppm and .16 ppm. The most recent water quality tests had no detectable levels of naturally occurring fluoride.

@Humey, the city intends to fluoridate the water at 0.7 ppm. They have stated that the preferred chemical for fluoridation will be fluorosilicic acid, an unrefined waste product of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing. The city has not stated where they are going to purchase the chemical from, but the majority of fluorosilicic acid is now imported from China.

To date the city has already spent over $153,000 on fluoride on consulting and land use permitting.

This peer-reviewed study, published in 2012, comprehensively shows the links between fluoridated municipal water and deleterious health effects:

http://bit.ly/7JJSz8

@Brooke Hoyer, A substance added to make municipal water safe to drink is not considered medication. The FDA defines a drug as "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease". Fluoride added to drinking water meets that definition and should be classified as a drug, yet the FDA does not.

It should be noted, chlorine can easily be filtered out by a cheap Brita filter. Fluoride cannot, thus requiring an expensive reverse osmosis type filtration system that still does not filter fluoride out 100%

Drunk & Write, you Rick-Rollin' sonofabitch!

(it's kinda funny that the Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland Youtube ad showed up before the video).

@Christine, you seem nice enough, so I'm not trying to yell at you here, but I really don't think you are educated enough about the issue. So I'm going to provide some information that you don't seem to have heard yet. @Spindles, I'd love for you to read this too but it seems like you're pretty far beyond reason at this point.

First, here is a very good letter about all the reasons that city council unanimously approved fluoridation before it was referred to vote (with tons of links to legitimate supporting evidence): http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/11590/ It was originally published on the Mayor's blog. The council considered all pertinent aspects of their decision and the effects it would have, they studied the subject quite a lot, probably more than you have, so even if you have anything against Adams (I know lots of people do), please still consider all the sources that he and the council cite in that letter. Council members are Portlanders too, they get the same water that you do, and I know they wouldn't put anything in it that would be harmful in any way. They take their responsibilities to the city very seriously and they wouldn't make a decision like this lightly.

You say it's a waste of money, but as they say, an ounce of prevention (fluoridation) is worth a pound of cure (dental care). It would actually be an effective way to save money on state public health care costs, like the Oregon Health Plan.

All the negative effects of fluoride that everyone is so scared of are the result of *excessive* exposure to fluoride, and it says this right in the studies themselves. The amount of fluoride that would be added to our water is .7 mg/L, the optimum concentration recommended by the CDC. Even the most minor effects found in respected studies don't occur at levels lower than 2.0 mg/L, and the major health concerns noted are from water with something like 4.0 mg/L.

And fluoride ingested in water at the optimal concentration (again, 0.7 mg/L) actually is more effective than topical application alone (i.e. toothpaste). And proven safe.

If you still don't want it, fine. Nobody is going to force you to be a customer of the Portland Water Bureau. Nobody is going to force you to drink tap water. Reverse osmosis filters can be added to your tap for something like $30.

If you have a problem about something you don't know, LOOK IT UP. You want to know the difference between sodium fluoride and fluorosilicic acid? LOOK IT UP. Please be educated, voters. Fluoridation is beneficial, harmless, affordable. If you don't have any cavities, good for you, this will help keep you that way. This is primarily for lower-income citizens who can't afford the dental health care, and it's a far more affordable way to help them than paying for every individual dentist visit. Some more FAQs: http://healthykidshealthyportland.org/freq…

I'd love to take Sam Adams' word that he is well read on the issue. He want's to make the case that .07 ppm is a low enough concentration (no way to control the dosage per individual mind you) not to cause deleterious effects to human health and the environment. Of course there are no studies of fluoride exposure at lower concentrations, but given that in the US we are already exposed to fluoride via toothpaste, mouthwash, other dental products, beverages, food with fluoride used as a pesticide, our systemic exposure to fluoride is already quite high. Adding 0.7 ppm to water would put our total exposure to near a 2 ppm equivalent.

I'd like to think Sam, and the rest of Portland's City Council's decision to fluoridate was made in good faith, but we have their actions to take under consideration as well.

First, the City Council was holding backroom meetings with Upstream Public Health off the City Council’s public calendars, violating the city’s lobbying and reporting requirements.

The fluoride lobby then pitched the idea to the public by presenting a a manufactured “dental health crisis” in Portland by comparing the statewide numbers for Oregon of untreated disease with other states, instead of using Portland metro’s readily available dental health numbers.

The City Council voted unanimously to fluoridate, circumventing any public input whatsoever, and timed their decision to give opposition groups less than one month to gather the necessary 20,000 valid signatures in order to force a referendum and put the issue up for a public vote by 2014. Of course, the fluoride treatment was plant had already been scheduled to come online and have the chemicals flowing by March, 2014.

When the opposition did managed to gather over 43,000 signatures, more than double the amount needed to refer the issue to the voters, and submitted them one day ahead of their deadline, the City Council voted 3-1 to fast track the referendum and move the date up by one year, thus ensuring that the opposition would be thoroughly outspent by the corporations and PAC's funding 95% of Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland's campaign. Of course having a vote before the next statewide Smile Survey came out establishing that Oregon, and Multnomah county's dental health figures all improved over the last five years was a bonus.

These do not seem like the actions of reasonable people to me.

If we really care about the goddamn kids, shouldn't that $5mil be spent on their education instead?

I support fluoride supplementation of the Portland drinking water - yinz are a bunch of Yukmouths here.

I am shocked at how ignorant of science people in Portland have shown themselves to be in this campaign, and Zia McCabe has passed Courtney Taylor-Taylor as my least favorite Dandy Warhol for her support for this quackery.

It makes me want to bootleg Vancouver tap water so I don't need dentures in 10 years.

I see spindles is pitching the Chinese meta-analysis study, which compared natural fluoride levels in water over EPA's maximum limits.

The study also did not control for other factors, such as mercury and other heavy metal exposure, and its authors did not claim that their study was applicable to water with fluoride supplements to an optimal level of 0.7 ppm.

In fact, municipal water authorities remove fluoride minerals from water in areas where it is over the 0.7 - 1.2 ppm proven to be harmless and beneficial to dental health.

You throw any conspiracy theory out there and Spindles falls for it hook, line and sinker!
And surely this must be a conspiracy, what with the AMA, ADA, and 99% of pediatric doctors supporting floridation.

Vote YES for the poor kids, you hippie bastards.

@ The Showstopper

You are right! We suck balls at neutrality! (And proudly so.)

@ Humpey, you'll take CWP's money though ...

"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 says "you may want to consult with your dentist" not "please vote to add it to everyone's water against their well-known lack of consent".]

Fluoride 101: A Response to Dr. Wu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30umO7s4Zj0
Published on Apr 27, 2013
Dr. Jay Levy, a practicing dentist in Portland, exposes the demonstrably false claims recently made by Dr. Phillip Wu, in a video made by Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland. To dig deeper into the fluoride issue, see: http://www.fluoridealert.org.

'Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland' & The Portland Fluoride Saga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfbrLGwwZOM
Transcript and Documentation:
http://pdxagainstfluoride.wordpress.com/20…

'Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland' & Fluoride By The Numbers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La8qUyzSUmo
Transcript and Documentation:
http://pdxagainstfluoride.wordpress.com/20…