To the Editor:
On April 12, 2018, at the annual town election, the voters of Edgartown will decide whether the town public water supply should be fluoridated.
Fluoride, a naturally occurring mineral, is useful for preventing dental caries, also called cavities or tooth decay. Dental caries is the most prevalent infectious disease of childhood. It is five times more prevalent than asthma. As almost everyone knows, it causes pain, and is difficult and expensive to treat. Fluoride in drinking water will reduce dental caries by 20 to 45 percent, even in the presence of other sources of fluoride, such as toothpaste.
The safety of community water fluoridation has been proven by careful review of scientists in the United States for 70 years. In 1945, the U.S. Public Health Service adjusted the fluoride in the city of Grand Rapids, Mich., from a naturally occurring trace level to 1 part fluoride per million parts of water. Shortly thereafter, two other U.S. cities and one Canadian city were artificially fluoridated, with three nearby, similarly sized cities not fluoridated, in carefully controlled trials. These controlled studies of the usefulness and safety of community water fluoridation continue to this present day, so that currently 210 million Americans are benefiting by drinking fluoridated water.
The vast majority of physicians, dentists, and other health professionals endorse the safety and value of this important public health measure. Unwavering support for water fluoridation from medical and dental organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, the National Head Start Association, the National Down’s Syndrome Society, the World Health Organization, every U.S. Surgeon General, and every President of the U.S., since and including President John F. Kennedy.
We, the undersigned, urge Edgartown voters to attend the annual town election on April 12, 2018, and answer ballot question No. 6: “Shall the public water supply for domestic use in the Town of Edgartown be fluoridated?” with a vote of “YES.”
Bruce E. Golden, D.D.S.
On behalf of Melanie Miller, M.D., Karen Gear, D.D.S., Garrett Orazem, D.M.D., Brian S. Cullen, D.M.D., David S. Samuels, D.M.D., Robert W. Herman, D.M.D., Debra George, D.M.D., Nina Giambro, D.D.S., Christopher Trailer, D.M.D., Glenn Harris, D.M.D., Helene F. Schaeffer, D.D.S., Richard J. McNulty,D.M.D., Sharam Karimi, D.M.D., Sanford Nadelstein, D.D.S., Barry Resnick, D.D.S., Steven Nagy, D.M.D., Elliot Kronstein, D.D.S., Sonya M. Stevens, M.D., Barbara Krause, M.D., Karen Williams, M.D., Henry Neider, M.D., Gerry Yukevich, M.D., Julia Stunkel, M.D., John Lamb, M.D., David A. Kolb, M.D., Pieter Pil, M.D., Ph.D., Beth Donnelly, M.D., Elizabeth Finnegan, M.D., Hugh F. Harwood, M.D., Ben Thomas, M.D., Judy Jones, D.P.N., FNR-BC, Marion Santos, M.S.N., R.N., Sarah Kuh, M.P.H., director, Vineyard Health Care Access/Vineyard Smiles, Michaeleen Cook, R.D.H., Donna Vought, R.D.H., Denise Schepici, president/CEO Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Dukes County Health Council
“Hundreds of research articles published over the past several decades have demonstrated potential harm to humans from fluoride at various levels of exposure, including levels currently deemed as safe. Fluoride is also known to impact the cardiovascular, central nervous, digestive, endocrine, immune, integumentary, renal, and respiratory systems, and exposure to fluoride has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, and many other adverse health outcomes.” – International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology (2017)
Thousands of professionals and several dental, health, environmental and human rights organizations have openly opposed fluoridation policy this century due to its well documented ill effects people and planet. Human Rights leaders oppose because the harmful effects on teeth, kidneys and brains are disproportionate to non-white races. It’s also medically contraindicated for many with inflammatory, immune system and thyroid disease. The IAOMT published a position paper in 2017 with over 500 scientific citations opposing any fluoride use as dangerous to people and planet.
Per government 2011-12 records, over half of todays teens have visible evidence of damage to their teeth due to overconsumption during youth, with 1 in 5 having moderate to severe mottling that includes brown stains and even pitting on at least two brittle teeth that will require costly crowns in young adulthood.
Brush your teeth with it if you want, but no one has the moral authority to add a drug (and fluoride is classified as an enzyme poison not a mineral and used as a drug) to the water when it harms some consumers.
This is a good site for fluoride information. Brought to the public by the American Dental Association.
https://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/az-topics/f/fluoride?source=PromoSpots&medium=ADA-FIWpage&content=Fluoride
Dr. Golden suggests, “Fluoride in drinking water will reduce dental caries by 20 to 45 percent, even in the presence of other sources of fluoride such as toothpaste.” While it is clear that logic is not a required course in dental school, we do expect our health professionals to tell us the truth and to understand the need for evidence-based claims. Even the CDC says that fluoridated water can only reduce cavities by 25% (nowhere close to the 45% claimed without citation). Beyond the questions of efficacy, which clearly remain, there are a variety of other reasons that communities and towns are questioning the need for the outdated and extraordinarily inefficient fluoridating of water. Here’s some science: https://files.iaomt.org/wp-content/uploads/IAOMT-Fluoride-Position-Paper.pdf
Some have questioned the legitimacy of the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology (IAOMT), referenced by both Maria and Seabreezes1.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/International_Academy_of_Oral_Medicine_and_Toxicology
https://www.dentalwatch.org/org/nonrec.html
I am quite impressed at the thoughtfulness and research of the comments here. My thought is that ‘when in doubt, throw it out”. While I am inclined to believe the “experts” on most things, I feel it is not their right to mandate what goes into my body, or the body of my child. it seems to me that flouride would likely improve the health of my child’s teeth, but there are unknowns about the long term effects of fluoride on the general population. It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Be cautious–
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