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By DEREK MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday pressed forward with a controversial plan to put fluoride into most of the
A crowd listens to speakers for and against fluoridating Sonoma County drinking water Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, at the Board of Supervisors meeting.
county’s drinking water during an emotional hearing in which dozens of speakers debated whether the chemical compound is a panacea or a poison.
Dentists and other health care professionals, along with a larger, more vocal contingent of fluoride skeptics, packed board chambers for the marathon five-hour public hearing.
Despite reservations expressed by some supervisors, the board unanimously authorized additional financial analysis and engineering studies of adding fluoride to most of the county’s drinking water. The final decision is not expected until March 2014.
“We can’t ignore the data and the statistics in this county when it comes to the oral health epidemic,” Supervisor Efren Carrillo said.
Dozens of speakers, however, expressed anger and dismay over the proposal, citing health concerns, distrust of mainstream science and doubts about how the county would be able to fund the project.
Based on preliminary estimates, the project could cost up to $8.5 million in capital upgrades to the county’s central water system, plus ongoing upkeep starting at $973,000 a year, according to a county report.
“I’m assuming this will be necessary because our roads will be so bad we won’t be able to drive to the dentist,” said Elizabeth Van Dyke of Guerneville, in what became a recurring theme about the county’s spending priorities.
Fluoride is a chemical compound and was introduced to U.S. drinking water nearly 70 years ago. About three-quarters of the nation’s population served by public water systems, or about 196 million people, are now receiving fluoridated water.
The measure is backed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the surgeon general, the World Health Organization and the American Dental Association, which called it “the single most effective public health measure to prevent dental decay.”
Currently in Sonoma County, the only fluoridated water is delivered to residents of Healdsburg, the adjacent Fitch Mountain area and Two Rock Coast Guard Base.
Dr. Lynn Silver Chalfin, the county’s health officer, told the board that in Sonoma County every day, 10 to 12 children undergo general anesthesia while being treated for severe dental disease.
She cited a CDC study that found that for every dollar spent on community water fluoridation, the result is a $38 savings on dental expenses.
Stacey Stirling, dental operations manager for St. Joseph Health Sonoma County, described a 5-year-old girl whose face was so swollen because of oral disease her eyes were nearly shut.
Stirling said the girl’s parents brought her to the emergency room and that she spent five days in the hospital. The total bill for her dental care: $80,000.
“We see children like this every day,” Stirling said. “My fear is that we’re going to see a death in Sonoma County, for those children who don’t make it in in time.”
Santa Rosa dentist Anthony Fernandez, a proponent of fluoride as a preventive measure, said the least expensive filling he offers is $160. He urged supervisors to “do the right thing,” and for dramatic effect, he played the shrill sound of a dentist’s drill on the public address system via his smartphone.
Opponents were not amused. Several speakers likened fluoride to a toxic substance they said can cause a range of health ailments when ingested, everything from bone cancer to hip fractures.
“You’re listening to members of the dental association that gave us mercury,” Dr. Robert Rowen, who has an integrative and nutritional family medicine practice in Santa Rosa, told the board.
He said if he were to prescribe medications the way he said supervisors are essentially considering with mass fluoridation, the medical establishment would “jerk my ticket,” meaning strip him of his licence to practice.
Several speakers said county health officials should concentrate their efforts instead on getting children weaned off of sugar and soda drinks.
They also raised the issue of people taking personal responsibility to teach their children good oral-hygiene habits.
The dissenters clearly got to Supervisor Shirlee Zane, who said after more than two hours of public testimony, “We are so behind the curve here. Shame on us for being so far behind.”
She then pointed her finger toward the audience and said, “I have listened to you. You will now listen to me.”
That prompted Brenda Adelman, a Guerneville resident and longtime activist on Russian River water issues, to stand up and yell loudly back at Zane, “Please don’t point your finger at me. That’s clearly obnoxious.”
Supervisor David Rabbitt, the chairman of the board, pounded the gavel several times seeking order.
“I’m not going on until they stop,” Zane said.
The fluoridation project would affect three quarters of the county, including 350,000 residents served by the Sonoma County Water Agency in Windsor, Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Petaluma, Sonoma, Forestville and the Valley of the Moon. More than 50,000 Novato-area residents served by the Water Agency also would get fluoridated water for the first time.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle to the county’s plans is that it would require the unanimous consent of all eight of the water agency’s retailers.
Rabbitt cautioned that the last time those agreements were opened up for review it took “eight-and-a-half years to bottle it up again.”
The Graton Community Services District is not one of the major municipal systems that receives water from the water agency. But Robert Rawson, the district’s general manager, said the district opposes the fluoride project because he said the chemical will cause environmental damage, including to aquatic organisms.
Rabbitt and Supervisor Susan Gorin expressed concerns about how the project would be funded and, also, over how much money the county is spending on studies. The engineering analysis approved Tuesday is estimated to cost the county about $103,000.
At questioning from Gorin, County Counsel Bruce Goldstein said the cost of the flouride project could be passed on to ratepayers.
Gorin said she also was “conflicted” about putting fluoride in water, saying she’s not expecting it to lead to “miraculous cures, especially among our disadvantaged population.”
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The people do not want this industrial poison in our water. Hitler used it to pacify people. People look it up for yourself. See what it does to your mind and your body. It does not prevent cavities ,good eating habits, and flossing etc is what prevents that. They know that countries that dont use flourides have the same dental disease that don do use it . They need somewhere to dump this discusting stuff and our water is a great place right. Thsis is just like the gmos. REJECT IT!
Hats are not very tasty. But our supervisors will need a secret sauce, humility perhaps, to admit they were wrong about fluoridation.
The main claim is that dental decay goes down. But the rate of decay in unfluoridated states and nations has declined at the same rate as in fluoridated locales:
There are at least 7 other reasons that should stop it from ever happening:
• Research shows that only topical fluoride reduces cavities, not ingestion of fluoridated water
• It violates the Precautionary Principle
• It is mass medication in uncontrolled doses, ignoring age and health status (the CDC warns parents of infants under 6 months not to mix their powdered formula into fluoridated water)
• Fluoride is more toxic than lead and almost as toxic as arsenic, and the product used actually contains those elements as well as radon (fluorosilicic acid from phosphate plant scrubbers is not the same as the pharmaceutical grade fluoride used in toothpaste)
• It has never been scientifically shown to be safe and effective
• The liability issues are risky for public agencies (just ask the asbestos and tobacco corporations
• It is harmful to ecosystems receiving the treated water:
Gamblers in a losing streak don’t know when to fold; they throw good money after bad. The county has already spent so much on earlier studies and now passed another $103,000 on this latest study, it will be nearly impossible to say, “We found out fluoridation is not the short cut to healthy teeth we were promised. Only improving school food and educating families to cut out excess sugar and consume nutrient-dense foods will stop the decay epidemic.”
In March, 2014, will the supes seek the scoundrels’ refuge by passing it, or can they say, “Oops, we should have realized this was a bad idea a year ago” and vote it down?
I will concede that there may be some benefit to teeth but what does fluoride do to the rest of our bodies? It’s ridiculous to drink the stuff. In addition, they don’t just put pure fluoride in the water, it has lots of other contaminants mixed in with it. Fluoride is an industrial waste product left over from manufacturing aluminum. Our corrupt government agreed to buy this stuff from Alcoa and put it in municipal water all over the United States for decades. The people are going to have to rise up and put a stop to this and all the other crimes being perpetrated against us before it’s too late. We should organize a huge protest at the Sonoma County Water Agency to block them from adding this toxic substance to the water. It’s the people’s water not theirs to do with as they please. Occupy our Water Supply!
Austen’s awake,
the function of the pineal gland is more sacred information hoarded from us.
The globalists know exactly what they’re doing.
Chlorine is one thing.
Fluoride is another.
Mixing them, is a whole other thing.
Evidently it chemically approximates chloroform. You know, the stuff they use in spy movies to make someone pass out.
Now turning these mixed chemicals into a gas, like what happens taking a hot shower in a small room, is a whole other thing.
This fluoride thing is a bad thing.
How are we going to let them POISON our water?!? This has to be stopped if we ever want our species to grow. Calcifying of the pineal gland is NOT a joke. Flouride is nothing good, and this is coming from the future generation. This flouridation must stop!
Adding fluoride to water is one of the things “good” politicians do. And if it’s “for our children,” only a Neanderthal would oppose it. Once that division is established, a rationale discussion becomes impossible.
Besides, this is sure more fun than dealing with the pension shortfall or our deplorable roads. When don’t politicians look for easy stuff to do while avoiding difficult problems?
@GAJ
Because that’s what they’ve always done and since they keep getting re-elected, how could they possibly conclude anything other than “that is what the people want”?
As I said at BOS yesterday, I am grateful for our ICLEI adherent local government having a resolve to put toxic industrial waste in our water table.
As it is becoming an instrument of awareness and unification for people throughout the County.
They can’t seem to figure out why the truck that delivers the poison wears an icon with a skull and cross bones, yet once it’s in our water, suddenly it’s a dental savior.
Aside from crashing small business and the ability to own private property, there’s one little piece of dark baggage that goes with UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development that people across the world are coming to know.
Population reduction.
This is what GMO is about. This is what toxic vaccines are about. This is what spraying us like cock roaches from jets is about. This is what all the ill conceived medical ‘treatments’ (not cures), and damaging pharm is about and much more.
Many are the green Progressive type that thought our local government was all about the environment. The environment is merely the Green Mask (Read; Behind the Green Mask UN Agenda 21), the guise under which this enormous oppression operates.
When drinking water kills fish, think we have a problem?
Why the Supervisors are focusing on spending tens of millions of dollars on “nice to do” when they ignore so many “must do” issues is beyond me.
I don’t buy the implication that adding fluoride will be of much value to people who don’t take personal responsibility for regular brushing and flossing.
Why not teach that in kindergarten including giving the kids free toothpaste and toothbrushes.