USA - With lines drawn in fluoride fight, factions set out to sway Martin voters

With lines drawn in fluoride fight, factions set out to sway Martin voters
By JEREMY ASHTON
jeremy.ashton@scripps.com
January 10, 2007
STUART — During a break in Monday's City Commission meeting, advocates and opponents of water fluoridation stood in the lobby of City Hall and exchanged contact information and notes with other members of their respective camps.
Commissioners had just decided to have a referendum on whether the city should use its already completed fluoridation system, leaving anti- fluoride activists and pro-fluoride dentists planning for the November general election.
On Tuesday, both groups began trying to figure out how best to educate the public on their points of view through the next 10 months on what each claims is a limited budget. Each side worries the other will scare Stuart residents into voting for or against the measure.
Fluoride opponents talked Tuesday about forming an organized group that could advertise, communicate with the media and take their argument that fluoride has potentially hazardous side effects directly to voters.

"If we're going to take the vote to the people, let's get both sides out there and let the people decide," said fluoride opponent George Fuller of Stuart.