Letter to the Editor: Fluoridation

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Dear Editor,

I am sure the nurse who wrote about fluoridation, today, has the health of the public at interest. However, four water companies in Pierce County are appealing a decision that the Board of Health can legally and constitutionally mandate fluoridation. Sadly, the citizens lost the ability to vote their destiny when the Senate and House Bills did not get to the floor of the legislature this spring.

In a survey, over 88% of the responding members in the Mt-View-Edgewood Water Company opposed fluoridation. They expressed a strong voice to keep it out of the City’s natural well water. Is adding a poisonous chemical really a wanted medical solution?

Fluoridation contaminates ground water. Over 85% of the water in a typical home is not for personal use. The average person drinks 2 ½ gallons of water of the 50 they use, daily. Forty-one percent flushes in home toilets, the remainder is for other non-medical uses as washing clothes, dishes, bathing, irrigation, yards, and livestock.

Is it cost effective? Estimated expenditure to buy and install this equipment is $1.5 million for Pierce County. One small water company in the county estimates a start up cost of $300,00, increases of $32,000 yearly, with an additional expenditure for a daily monitoring staff. This projection is only the beginning of operating costs, because additional chemical additives such as chlorine possibly might be necessary and increase expenditures.

When I taught in the public schools, a weekly program provided fluoride to each student. The gallon of fluoride lasted the year for 30 students. Each student received his or her dose from the teacher. This was a simple, cheap, and an effective procedure. Those needing the fluoride were actively treated.

Fluoridation seems like a costly, toxic shotgun solution without a way to control the bad side effects.

Marilyn Redmond
Edgewood, WA

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