USA - Fluoride debate touches down in Sandpoint

Fluoride debate touches down in Sandpoint
Posted: Sep 17, 2009 12:25 AM
SANDPOINT, ID. - The battle lines have been drawn in Sandpoint over fluoride. For years the city has fluoridated the water supply. One group of people want that to stop while members of the dental community says absolutely not.

Like many communities across the country Sandpoint has been putting fluoride in its water since the early 1950s to fight tooth decay.

"We add one part per million of fluoride which is the recommended level from the EPA and Centers for Disease Control," Kody Van Dyke with Sandpoint Public Works said.

However now the Bonner County Republican Central Committee says the chemical is harmful and unnecessary. The committee along with other members of the community are asking Sandpoint's city council to put an end to Ordinance 1034, a city law requiring water to be fluoridated. The city's public works department says fluoride is added to the public water supply 8 months out of the year.

The Republican Central Committee argues that fluoride doesn't prevent tooth decay and some opponents say fluoride treatment shouldn't be forced on those who don't want it.

"I don't like it at all," Del Hathaway said. "I never like it since they instigated the whole thing especially when i learned it was a derivative of the aluminum process and its a deadly poison."

In the opposite camp is the dental community, armed with a letter signed by 19 local dentists that claims that fluoride is beneficial to healthy teeth growth especially in kids and that "Sandpoint dentists unanimously support municipal fluoridation."

"As a school nurse for sometime I observed lots of kids that had lots of cavities and part of it is they can't get to the dentist and get the fluoride treatments. I think it should be in the water," fluoride supporter Dana Williams said.

The Sandpoint City Council will take up the fluoride debate at a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.