Alaska - Task force recommendation followed a thorough review
Remove fluoride: Task force recommendation followed a thorough review
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Jun 05, 2011
After a lengthy review of scientific knowledge and public sentiment, a task force convened by the city has concluded fluoride should no longer be added to public water systems in Fairbanks.
The Fairbanks City Council should follow that advice. The council could vote as early as tonight on an ordinance from Mayor Jerry Cleworth to prohibit the addition of fluoride.
The task force’s report isn’t a clarion call for fluoride’s removal. It is a cautious summary of a subject in which the science continues to reflect uncertainty. However, the group felt that, on balance, the arguments for removal were stronger. The report is posted on the city’s website.
For decades, dentists and public health specialists have argued strenuously for the addition of fluoride to municipal water systems, citing studies that show a benefit to dental health. Other studies, though, have undercut those claims. The task force, tossed into this developing debate, had some very interesting conclusions.
They found that community water fluoridation caused a large reduction in dental caries — cavities — when it was first done, many decades ago. However, “in recent decades, the degree of caries reduction attributed to community water fluoridation has decreased as other sources of fluoride have come into common use and as effective dental health measures have become more prevalent,” the group found. “The relative importance of water fluoridation is currently much smaller, more variable among populations, and perhaps unknowable.”
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Jun 05, 2011
After a lengthy review of scientific knowledge and public sentiment, a task force convened by the city has concluded fluoride should no longer be added to public water systems in Fairbanks.
The Fairbanks City Council should follow that advice. The council could vote as early as tonight on an ordinance from Mayor Jerry Cleworth to prohibit the addition of fluoride.
The task force’s report isn’t a clarion call for fluoride’s removal. It is a cautious summary of a subject in which the science continues to reflect uncertainty. However, the group felt that, on balance, the arguments for removal were stronger. The report is posted on the city’s website.
For decades, dentists and public health specialists have argued strenuously for the addition of fluoride to municipal water systems, citing studies that show a benefit to dental health. Other studies, though, have undercut those claims. The task force, tossed into this developing debate, had some very interesting conclusions.
They found that community water fluoridation caused a large reduction in dental caries — cavities — when it was first done, many decades ago. However, “in recent decades, the degree of caries reduction attributed to community water fluoridation has decreased as other sources of fluoride have come into common use and as effective dental health measures have become more prevalent,” the group found. “The relative importance of water fluoridation is currently much smaller, more variable among populations, and perhaps unknowable.”
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3:20 PM
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