USA - No. 4 News Story of the Year
No. 4 News Story of the Year: The furious fight against fluoride: State mandates rile opponents, may be on hold now
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
By Kathryn Lucariello, Carroll County News
EUREKA SPRINGS -- One of the biggest issues countywide in 2012 was the state-mandated fluoridation of the drinking water supply, and the issue comes at No. 4 on our Top Ten list of news stories for the year.
While Carroll-Boone Water District's water is not yet fluoridated, questions remain over whether it will be, as funding has been put on hold, and bills may be introduced in 2013 putting strictures on fluoride products.
For Carroll County, the issue goes back well before 2012.
CBWD was established to provide drinking water to its four member cities of Eureka Springs, Berryville, Green Forest and Harrison in Boone County. The CBWD plant in rural Eureka Springs draws water from Beaver Lake, chlorinates it and pipes it to the cities and their subsidiaries. On two separate occasions in the past, the city councils of all the member cities except Eureka Springs voted to fluoridate the water. Eureka Springs turned the matter over to its citizens for a vote, and both times they turned it down, which vetoed it for the other member cities as well because such policy changes must be unanimous.
The late Jim Allison, CBWD office manager, wrote a letter in 2005 to a state senate committee after the House passed legislation to fluoridate water "under a cloak of secrecy," he said. He said he and the water operators had begun to research fluoride after the two Eureka votes to defeat it and "became disturbed by the information we were finding," citing the potential harm to customers and operators in handling and consuming "a poison more toxic than lead and just slightly less toxic than arsenic, made from industrial waste."......He also had critical words for fellow Republicans, however.
"I have trouble understanding why the Republicans would vote for it. They didn't want health care mandated, and then turn around and mandate fluoride in our drinking water? What's that about?".....
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
By Kathryn Lucariello, Carroll County News
EUREKA SPRINGS -- One of the biggest issues countywide in 2012 was the state-mandated fluoridation of the drinking water supply, and the issue comes at No. 4 on our Top Ten list of news stories for the year.
While Carroll-Boone Water District's water is not yet fluoridated, questions remain over whether it will be, as funding has been put on hold, and bills may be introduced in 2013 putting strictures on fluoride products.
For Carroll County, the issue goes back well before 2012.
CBWD was established to provide drinking water to its four member cities of Eureka Springs, Berryville, Green Forest and Harrison in Boone County. The CBWD plant in rural Eureka Springs draws water from Beaver Lake, chlorinates it and pipes it to the cities and their subsidiaries. On two separate occasions in the past, the city councils of all the member cities except Eureka Springs voted to fluoridate the water. Eureka Springs turned the matter over to its citizens for a vote, and both times they turned it down, which vetoed it for the other member cities as well because such policy changes must be unanimous.
The late Jim Allison, CBWD office manager, wrote a letter in 2005 to a state senate committee after the House passed legislation to fluoridate water "under a cloak of secrecy," he said. He said he and the water operators had begun to research fluoride after the two Eureka votes to defeat it and "became disturbed by the information we were finding," citing the potential harm to customers and operators in handling and consuming "a poison more toxic than lead and just slightly less toxic than arsenic, made from industrial waste."......He also had critical words for fellow Republicans, however.
"I have trouble understanding why the Republicans would vote for it. They didn't want health care mandated, and then turn around and mandate fluoride in our drinking water? What's that about?".....
posted by Bill at
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