'It's a little disheartening': Officials frustrated by efforts to halt fluoride treatment in Iowa town

Every few years, a small-but-mighty group of Iowans lobbies their city to stop adding fluoride to the public water.

Most recently, the city council for the northwest Iowa town of Ida Grove voted 3-2 to end the town's water fluoridation program, shortly after the majority of respondents to a survey — distributed through utility bills — voted to end the decades-old practice. 

"As a scientist and public health professional, it's not the way I would conduct a survey," said Sara Carmichael-Stanley, the state water fluoridation coordinator at the Iowa Department of Public Safety, noting many people do not fully read their bills...............