Fluoride "huge affront to individual rights"

To the Editor:

Like many here in the Kennebunk Kennebunkport & Wells Water District, I've been reading about the water fluoridation issue. I recently learned that way back in 1973 people were fighting against being drugged through the public water supply.

In one California fluoride case, the judge decided "police power" knows better than an individual what's good for him.

"Courts through the United States have uniformly held that fluoridation of water is a reasonable and proper exercise of the police power in the interest of public health." -Beck v City Council of Beverly Hills, 1973.

Fluoridation of water against the will of citizens is a "proper exercise of police power?"

Is that okay with you and your readers? This is Maine. This is the United States of America. I can't understand how this even came to be. I don't care what political party you follow, water is essential for life and we shouldn't have anyone adding any extra chemicals to it that don't help keep the water clean.

This medicine called fluoride isn't even accepted as safe and effective by the FDA. Yet we put it in our water?

Using "police powers" to force us to drink a chemical that originates in a fertilizer industry smokestack scrubber is an action that should outrage the citizenry as much as any issue facing our community today.

It's a simple issue. It's a huge affront to individual rights. We have the right to a say in what medication we take. We have a right to a say in our medical health decisions with full disclosure of the risks and benefits to any suggested course of action.

I'm voting NO and taking back my right to decide what goes into my body.

Jule Gerrish

Kennebunkport