usa - Fluoride levels in city water should drop, health officials say on way to delayed vote

By Sue Reinert 
Wednesday, May 27, 2015

There have been questions about how much fluoride to add to drinking water as rinses, toothpaste and other sources of the chemical have become routine. (Photo: Mike Mozart)

Health officials are urging less cavity-fighting fluoride in city water, in line with new federal recommendations. The advisory body of the city’s Public Health Department, which has authority to order the change, put off a vote Wednesday because only one voting member showed up, not enough for a decision.

Claude Alix-Jacob, chief public health officer, said the recommendation will be reintroduced at a meeting next month of the public health subcommittee of the Cambridge Health Alliance. The subcommittee advises the Public Health Department.

The issue of fluoridation, undebated in Cambridge since the 1970s, arose after anti-fluoridation activists persuaded city councillor Nadeem Mazen to ask for a review of the policy last July. In early February, the Public Health Department sponsored a contentious but peaceful public forum at which several people in the audience challenged the pro-fluoridation panel of experts. Then health officials were to come up with a recommendation..............