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<DIV>All,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This is very interesting and it appears the jury is still out on
how helpful fluoride really is. The researcher from Brentwood raises some
questions. If I remember Spokane is going through this discussion.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dick Schmidt</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=h1>Some rethink fluoridation of water <BR></SPAN><BR><SPAN
class=bodytext><B><I>Debate weighs possible cancer risks vs. tooth decay
prevention</I></B><BR></SPAN><BR><SPAN class=byline>By AMY GREEN<BR><I><I>For
The Tennessean</I></I><BR></SPAN><BR><!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->
<P class=bodytext>Some Tennesseans are rethinking whether it's such a good idea
to add fluoride to public drinking water supplies, questioning whether the
additive is as dangerous as it is helpful.</P>
<P class=bodytext>City officials in Franklin are reconsidering their city's
long-standing practice of putting fluoride in the drinking water to help prevent
tooth decay. Last year, a utility in East Tennessee stopped adding it after most
of its 30,000 customers said they didn't want it. And a state lawmaker is
holding public meetings in Nashville on whether it's a good idea.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Critics say that fluoride's effects never have been adequately
studied and that the practice of adding it to public water supplies is linked to
bone cancer and other ailments.</P>
<P class=bodytext>"I'm not trying to make everyone scared," said state Rep. Gary
Odom, who held a meeting on water fluoridation in June at the Capitol and plans
more. "It just, to me, makes sense that you review public policies periodically,
and you look and see whether this should be reconsidered or whether more
information needs to be given to local governments that are having to decide on
this."</P>
<P class=bodytext>Some 5.4 million Tennesseans are served by public and
community water systems that add fluoride, according to the state Department of
Environment and Conservation.</P>
<P class=bodytext>About 90,000 people in Middle Tennessee are getting
unfluoridated water from two dozen systems, according to information from
TDEC.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Angie Mullins is one of those people. She thought her drinking
water had fluoride in it. A dental hygienist, she even told her patients it
did.</P>
<P class=bodytext>So when she learned she was wrong — that her Lincoln County
water isn't fluoridated — she was shocked.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Concerned for her four young children's teeth, she's been
pushing leaders of this rural county on the outskirts of Huntsville, Ala., for
the past five years to fluoridate the water.</P>
<P class=bodytext>"Most everyone, when you talk to them, they assume their water
is fluoridated," said Mullins, 34. "So when they find out, they're pretty much
upset about it."</P>
<P class=bodytext>The Lincoln County public utilities system hasn't fluoridated
its water for about a decade, though county seat Fayetteville does. Lincoln
County is the largest water system in Middle Tennessee that does not add
fluoride to its water, with 16,643 customers, according to an analysis of data
from TDEC.</P>
<P class=bodytext>It never was an issue until Mullins spoke out at a board
meeting last spring, said Billy Joe Wiley, superintendent of the county public
utilities board.</P>
<P class=bodytext>After news stories on the meeting appeared in the local paper,
the board got calls from residents both approving of and protesting the county's
policy on water fluoridation. Residents at board meetings were equally
divided.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Now the board feels stymied, Wiley said. He can't predict how
the issue ultimately will be resolved.</P>
<P class=bodytext>"The board doesn't know which way to go. Those who are for it
feel very strongly for it and can give a whole host of reasons for it, and those
against it seem to feel equally as strong against it and they can supposedly
produce volumes of reasons why you should be against it," he said.</P>
<P class=bodytext>"What worries me, I don't understand, if it needs to be in the
water, why does the state of Tennessee not require us to put it in the
water?"</P>
<P class=bodytext>While Lincoln County is debating whether to put it back in,
Franklin city officials are thinking of whether to take it out.</P>
<P class=bodytext>A local researcher from Brentwood raised the issue at a recent
Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, said Jay Johnson, the city's administrator.
The city's Public Enterprise Advisory Committee voted unanimously in July to
have city staffers research the issue, finding out which other cities don't
fluoridate their water and also to find evidence supporting fluoridation.</P>
<P class=bodytext>The largest unfluoridated water system in the state, according
to TDEC data, is the South Blount County Utility District, which serves about
30,000 customers <BR>on the cusp of the Smoky Mountains.</P>
<P class=bodytext>It opted against fluoride last year after a new water plant
began operating and residents in a survey rejected the additive 2-to-1, said
Isom Lail, the utility's director. County seat Maryville and the city of Alcoa
each fluoridate their water.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Water fluoridation became a standard way to help prevent tooth
decay after Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first community to do it in 1945.
Now about 170 million Americans live in communities where the water is
fluoridated, according to the Chicago-based American Dental Association, the
nation's largest professional dental organization.</P>
<P class=bodytext>The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta hails water fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest public health
achievements of the 20th century. Proponents credit it as a cost-effective way
to help prevent tooth decay for almost everyone, <BR>regardless of income, race
or ethnicity.</P>
<P class=bodytext>For most communities every dollar spent on water fluoridation
saves $38 on dental care, according to the ADA.</P>
<P class=bodytext>"In Tennessee we've had fluoridation, I think, 45 years-plus,
and the results in terms of the amount of dental caries that school-age children
and younger that has been reported has just dropped like a rock since the
implementation of fluoridation," said David Horvat, executive director of the
Tennessee Dental Association.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Though many people think of it as fluoride, the additive is
really one of a family of compounds called fluorides. They all contain the
element fluorine. Fluorides are well known for their ability to strengthen teeth
against decay, and many toothpastes contain <BR>them.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Advocates say fluoride is safe at such low levels, appears
naturally in underground water supplies in many parts of the U.S., and is
<BR>cheap to add to public water supplies.</P>
<P class=bodytext>But critics question the ethics of mixing medicine with
something so fundamental as drinking water. They argue many people aren't aware
their water is fluoridated and never consented to it.</P>
<P class=bodytext>They also charge that the hazards of water fluoridation
eventually will be proven to be so far-reaching, they eventually could rival
those of tobacco and result in similar litigation.</P>
<P class=bodytext>The man who piqued Franklin officials' interest was Dan
Stockin, a researcher with a background in hazardous materials at The Lillie
Center Inc., a Brentwood firm that offers environmental and public health
training. He considers fluoride, when ingested, to be nothing short of a
toxic.</P>
<P class=bodytext>He began researching water fluoridation a year ago for his
boss, who wondered whether it was to blame for a skin irritation. He never
discovered the cause of the skin irritation, but what he learned about water
fluoridation prompted him to lobby municipal and state leaders against it.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Like many critics, Stockin blames fluoride for thyroid
problems and says its deposits in bones and joints are to blame for pain often
mistaken as arthritis.</P>
<P class=bodytext>He also points to an unpublished study, in the news this
summer, by a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. The 2001
study reportedly suggests a link between fluoridated water and a rare bone
cancer in boys. Critics say it's the latest study showing such a link.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Odom, his interest sparked by Stockin, held a meeting in June
on water fluoridation with up to 70 representatives from the state Department of
Health, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander's office, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn's office,
the dentistry industry, water utility <BR>districts and local health
departments.</P>
<P class=bodytext>The aim was to educate, Odom said. Many municipal leaders are
unaware there is no state law requiring them to fluoridate their water, he said.
He plans to continue the conversation next month in meetings of the state House
Conservation and Environment Committee, of which he is the chairman.</P>
<P class=bodytext>Meanwhile, Mullins buys her children fluoride supplements and
calls county leaders. She has attended public meetings since the spring to lobby
for the fluoride cause.</P>
<P class=bodytext>She complains that when Lincoln County quit fluoridating its
water, no one was informed. She sees an effect on the teeth of young children
growing up without it.</P>
<P class=bodytext>"It's very detrimental to the health of people, mainly
children because children are the ones who get the most benefit from the
fluoride," she said. "It affects your teeth for the rest of your life."
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