USA - Voters to decide fluoride issue

Voters to decide fluoride issue
By Rachel Simmonsen
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
STUART — City commissioners, uneasy about having to decide whether to fluoridate drinking water, agreed Monday night to leave it up to somebody else: city residents.
After listening to more than an hour and a half of public comment, commissioners voted 4-0 to put the matter to voters in the November election. In the meantime, the city will hold off on fluoridating drinking water, a measure that was approved four years ago by a previous commission.
Only two of the commissioners who took part in the original vote still sit on the board. Vice Mayor Jeffrey Krauskopf voted against fluoridation in 2003 and remains opposed. Michael Mortell, who favored fluoridation, still does. He was absent at Monday's meeting.The city has spent about $112,000 to design and build a system to deliver fluoride to drinking water, but recent public outcry prompted the commission to reconsider before turning on the valve.

In December, anti-fluoride activists convinced Martin County commissioners to overturn their decision to fluoridate. Many of the same opponents, including several people who live outside the city and Martin County, spoke Monday to the Stuart commission, saying fluoride increases the risks of bone cancer and can be poisonous to infants and people with thyroid conditions.