Editorial: Will baseless fluoride accusations poison the well?

Will baseless fluoride ?accusations poison the well?|

The Sonoma City Council nearly drank the Kool-Aid. They raised the sterling goblet to their lips, but couldn’t quite bring themselves to sip.

Whether the Kool-Aid was laced with fluoridated water remains to be seen.

The council at its Wednesday, Feb. 18 meeting considered sending a letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors expressing its opposition to a proposed county health department program to add less than a single part per million of fluoride to the water supply – practice that’s been going on in water districts in the United States for nearly 70 years. The trace amount of fluoride, a naturally occurring substance that’s safe to ingest in small amounts, strengthens tooth enamel, thus lowering rates of tooth decay and dental disease. Anyone who’s had kids in the last couple of decades knows about this, because their dentist has likely prescribed fluoride tablets or gel to be eaten, or brushed with, once a day. That is, if the parent is lucky enough to have health insurance and a dental plan; otherwise it’s unlikely the kids are getting the benefit of fluoride or, unfortunately, a regular brushing routine for that matter.

This is why the vast majority of dentists, not to mention the American Dental Association and a flurry of other pro-teeth organizations, strongly endorse water fluoridation – it’s the only line of defense against rotting teeth for a large section of low-income kids.

Fluoridation is also safe. Or, at least, it has never been demonstrated to be otherwise, in the seven-decades-plus of the practice.

Most people, of course, aren’t fluoride aficionados and probably couldn’t offer an informed opinion about its use in dental health and what precautions should be made regarding fluoridation. Which is why councilmembers Laurie Gallian and Madolyn Agrimonti deserve credit for admitting as much last week, and voting against taking any formal stand on a contentious issue when they didn’t feel they knew enough about it.

As luck would have it, the councilmembers were enlightened about fluoride at the meeting by a plethora of experts on oral health. For instance, there was the Sonoma County Health Officer, on hand alongside several doctors of dentistry. And there were other concerned community members, as well, of the non-dentist variety. I won’t tell you what the dentists had to say about fluoride (“it’s safe,” “helps poor kids’ teeth,” you know the, er... drill). Because, just as important, were the arguments from those in the room who weren’t toting the line for Fluoride Incorporated. Scary words like “poison,” “toxic,” “forced medicine,” “byproduct” and “reverse osmosis” were thrown around pretty liberally during the public comment time. To hear some, fluoride is responsible for Alzheimer’s, mental retardation, chemtrails, Agenda 21 (the alleged United Nations plan to Eastern-Europeanize America) and the general state of things being “dumb dumb.”

Never mind that not one of these things is true (aside from perhaps the “dumb dumb” part). Or, to be fair, there’s no evidence that any of these things is true – not even the allegation from one county resident that fluoride is linked to our nation being “run by organized pedophiles.”

So, as the council considers a new-and-improved letter of opposition to the Board of Supes – with new-and-improved reasons to be against it, which was essentially the direction given to city staff – one hopes councilmembers weigh actual evidence surrounding the issue when voting on the letter at the March 2 meeting.

That being said, there’s no law that says a councilmember has to consider science or facts when casting a vote - sometimes you gotta vote with your gut.

Especially if that gut has just been force-fed a glass of Alzheimer’s-laced dumb-dumb by the Agenda 21 pedophiles at the U.N.

Because those guys really hate poor kids’ teeth.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.