Fluoridated Water Not Available to Many Americans

Fluoridated Water Not Available to Many Americans
Posted on: Friday, 11 July 2008, 00:40 CDT
Sixty years after fluoride was touted as a public health measure to prevent tooth decay, 82 million Americans are still served by water systems without fluoridated water.
A new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday revealed that as of 2006, 69 percent of people in the United States who get water from municipal or regional community systems received fluoridated water. That number has risen four percent since 2000, and seven percent since 1992.
While 184 million Americans receive fluoridated water from community water systems, 82 million still live without its benefits.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association said, "This is one of the dirty little secrets -- that the whole nation has not yet embraced fluoridation of water, which has enormous public health benefits."
The CDC said adding fluoride to public water supplies is one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century because it greatly reduced dental cavities.
GA_googleFillSlotWithSize("ca-pub-5440138744487553", "News_Main_300x250", 300, 250);
Dr. William Bailey of the CDC's Division of Oral Health said, “It’s still an under-utilized, very effective public health measure."
Officials in Grand Rapids, Michigan, were the first to introduce the fluoridation of public water supplies in 1945.
Major U.S. cities continue to forego the fluoridation of their water supplies, including: San Diego; Portland, Oregon; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Wichita, Kansas.
San Diego city leaders said they would begin fluoridating its water by May 2010.
The CDC said, in the most populous U.S. state, California, only 27 percent of people got fluoridated water from community systems as of 2006. Only Hawaii (8 percent) and New Jersey (23 percent) were lower.
Those who disagree with fluoridation argue it may cause health problems such as weak bones and bone cancer. But the CDC dismisses this claim.
Fluoridation was also controversial in the past. During the 1950s it was denounced by opposition who saw it as a communist plot. Director Stanley Kubrick's 1964 Cold War satire "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," made fun of the assertion.
Bailey said there is no evidence fluoride shows negative health effects, "No, not at the levels that we use in community water systems."
Fluoride can be added to water either in powder or liquid form at water treatment plants. Bailey said, normally the levels measure about one part per million.
Many Americans drink large amounts of bottled water that is not fluoridated. Plus, more than 10 percent of Americans living in rural areas, receive their drinking water from wells, which is typically not fluoridated.
The CDC report said there are many U.S. states with low percentages of people served by fluoridated water. The states included: Oregon (27 percent), Montana (31), Idaho (31), Wyoming (36), Louisiana (40) and New Hampshire (43).
Fourteen states topped 90 percent. Washington D.C. had the highest fluoridation at 100 percent.
"Most people are complacent about the issue because they just naturally assume they live in a city that's fluoridated," Bailey said.
The government's goal is for 75 percent of Americans who get their water from community systems to get fluoridated water by 2010.
Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports

They're lucky.