10 years without water fluoridation
Ten years ago, city officials in Wyandotte, Michigan, quietly stopped fluoridating the town’s water. Today, residents are expressing their concern, and the mayor admits the city could have done more to communicate its plan to discontinue community water fluoridation, according to a news article published in Planet Detroit. Wyandotte officials set a deadline of Oct. 31 to review its fluoride policy and create a communication plan.
Wayandotte resident Erin Craig, has expressed concern that the removal of fluoride from drinking water resulted in oral health issues for her son. At just 4 years old, her son had seven of his baby teeth removed and spacers installed to prepare for his adult teeth. She also stressed that the city has continued to falsely tout fluoridation as a tooth decay prevention measure online.
In an April survey, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy found that Wyandotte Municipal Services failed to follow requirements for the proper treatment, distribution and storage of its public drinking water. As a result, Wyandotte Municipal Servies announced plans to address the issues identified in the survey and removed from its website misleading information claiming the city fluoridates its water.
Although fluoride is known to strengthen tooth enamel, prevent tooth decay and reduce cavities by up to 25%, skepticism over the mineral’s inclusion in drinking water has proliferated as a result of studies linking high levels of fluoride to issues such as low IQ. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has also made accusations that fluoride is a neurotoxin. However, the ADA maintains that the claims made by both the studies and RFK Jr. relied on low-quality data from foreign countries with fluoride levels far exceeding the water safety limits set in the United States. The ADA emphasizes that community water fluoridation continues to be safe and effective.
“There’s really no good scientific data to illustrate that the concern over IQ is real” indicated Margherita Fontana, D.D.S., professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. “Before fluoridation … it was common for people to have dentures and to lose their teeth,” she added.
Read more: Planet Detroit
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