USA - Fluoride debate surfaces in Poynette

Fluoride debate surfaces in Poynette
By PATRICIA SIMMS608-252-6492 psimms@madison.com
Last July, the Poynette Village Board quietly voted to stop adding fluoride — long considered an antidote to tooth decay — to the public water supply.
Steve Tomlinson, the village president, says the equipment the village had was old and unreliable, and the state doesn’t require fluoride in drinking water.
More importantly, village trustee Kevin Marquardt, chairman of the Public Works Committee, said fluoride is poison.
It took about three months before a new village trustee, Andy Ross, learned what the board had done and asked members to reconsider.
In January, a public hearing caused a stir for a village where most board meetings don’t draw crowds, Tomlinson said.
Now, dental hygienists and others are pushing hard to get fluoride flowing back into the village’s water, and the board has approved a non-binding referendum April 7 to test public opinion.
“Non-binding still gives (the board) a choice,” Tomlinson said.
Marquardt agreed. “That way we’re not bound for anything they vote for. We can still use our better judgment to do what’s right for the taxpayers. I would think with this referendum, there will be a lot of people voting who may not be as well-educated on the use of water fluoridation as people on the board.”
Tomlinson, who voted last July to stop fluoridating the village water, said he’ll vote to return fluoride if containment safety issues are settled.
“It seems like that’s what people want,” he said. “I’ll vote for what they want. I’ll listen to them.”
Poynette’s not alone.
Last month, the Chippewa Falls City Council voted 5-2 to take no action on a request from the Chippewa County Board of Health to add fluoride to the city’s water supply. In 2004, an advisory referendum to add fluoride to the city’s water supply was defeated by a 70 to 30 percent margin.
A total of 253 of Wisconsin’s 614 municipal water systems add fluoride, according to Lee Boushon, chief of the Public Water Supply Section of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Fluoride occurs naturally in combination with other minerals in soil and rocks....................