USA - Unending fight about fluoride leaves a cavity in kids
Toothache
Unending fight about fluoride leaves a cavity in kids'
healthPD EDITORIAL
Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 1:15 p.m.
If you wait long enough, everything seems to come around again. So it goes with this golden oldie: whether to put fluoride in Sonoma County's drinking water.
The science was long ago settled but the battle throbs on like a toothache.
Fluoridation is a "safe and effective way" to prevent tooth decay, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says unequivocally. As if that's not straightforward enough, the CDC lists fluoridation as "one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century."
But more than 60 years after Grand Rapids, Mich. became the first U.S. city to fluoridate its drinking water supply, many communities -- including ours -- haven't followed suit, in part because the idea generates fervent opposition.
The lone exceptions in Sonoma County are Healdsburg and the adjacent Fitch Mountain area where residents voted in the 1970s to add fluoride to their water.
Some say there's a risk of serious health problems if fluoride levels are too high. Others object to the concepts of compulsory medication. Go back far enough, some people claimed fluoridation was a Communist plot.
Mostly it's a big cavity in our dental health program, a missed opportunity for front-end prevention to avoid bigger problems later.
California actually has required fluoridation of drinking water since 1995 -- but the law isn't enforced because, like too many state mandates, it's never been funded.
Last week, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors broached the idea of fluoridation after receiving an assessment about widespread tooth decay and oral disease in Sonoma County children.
Surveys presented to the board included several alarming findings. Among them, 39 percent of schoolchildren have untreated tooth decay, a figure that rises to 60 percent for low-income children, and 13 percent of children in the lowest grade levels never have been to a dentist.
"It is inconceivable to me that we have a way of treating that problem and we are not," board Chairman Mike Kerns said.
It's inconceivable to us, too, as were the warnings that there will be opposition to taking this relatively simple step to improving everyone's dental health. Imagine the outcry if Kerns suggested free Wi-fi.
One sided "safe and effective way" "one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century."
Unending fight about fluoride leaves a cavity in kids'
healthPD EDITORIAL
Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 1:15 p.m.
If you wait long enough, everything seems to come around again. So it goes with this golden oldie: whether to put fluoride in Sonoma County's drinking water.
The science was long ago settled but the battle throbs on like a toothache.
Fluoridation is a "safe and effective way" to prevent tooth decay, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says unequivocally. As if that's not straightforward enough, the CDC lists fluoridation as "one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century."
But more than 60 years after Grand Rapids, Mich. became the first U.S. city to fluoridate its drinking water supply, many communities -- including ours -- haven't followed suit, in part because the idea generates fervent opposition.
The lone exceptions in Sonoma County are Healdsburg and the adjacent Fitch Mountain area where residents voted in the 1970s to add fluoride to their water.
Some say there's a risk of serious health problems if fluoride levels are too high. Others object to the concepts of compulsory medication. Go back far enough, some people claimed fluoridation was a Communist plot.
Mostly it's a big cavity in our dental health program, a missed opportunity for front-end prevention to avoid bigger problems later.
California actually has required fluoridation of drinking water since 1995 -- but the law isn't enforced because, like too many state mandates, it's never been funded.
Last week, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors broached the idea of fluoridation after receiving an assessment about widespread tooth decay and oral disease in Sonoma County children.
Surveys presented to the board included several alarming findings. Among them, 39 percent of schoolchildren have untreated tooth decay, a figure that rises to 60 percent for low-income children, and 13 percent of children in the lowest grade levels never have been to a dentist.
"It is inconceivable to me that we have a way of treating that problem and we are not," board Chairman Mike Kerns said.
It's inconceivable to us, too, as were the warnings that there will be opposition to taking this relatively simple step to improving everyone's dental health. Imagine the outcry if Kerns suggested free Wi-fi.
One sided "safe and effective way" "one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century."
posted by Bill at
9:51 AM
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