STATE GOVERNMENT:

The government says it’s good, so Nevadans say no to fluoride

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Full text of Senate Bill 311

Editorial: This definitely puts cart before the horse (1-21-2000)
Panel endorses bill to fluoridate water (4-8-1999)

Carson City — Unless it’s the gold standard, few issues draw out the hard-core libertarians like the issue of fluoride in the water.

And Nevada, particularly the older and more settled northern part, has a strong contingent of those individuals who tend to liberally connect the dots on issues.

So the hearing room for testimony on Senate Bill 311, which would require the fluoridation of water in Washoe County, filled up quickly Monday.

The story goes back to 1999, when the Legislature introduced a bill that required fluoridation of water. Then-Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani (now a Clark County commissioner) recalls the John Birch Society coming after her and people leaving messages accusing her of trying to poison them.

“It was not pleasant,” Giunchigliani testified Monday.

To get the bill passed, she changed it to require only Clark County to add fluoride. That was done starting in 2001.

Clinging to a persistent mistrust of the natural mineral, the rest of the state has not gone to fluoride.

In 2002, 58 percent of Washoe County voters said no to fluoride.

Monday’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Health and Education began with graphic pictures showing the effect of refusal to fluoridate.

Mark Rosenberg, a former U.S. Public Health Service dental director, now with St. Mary’s Hospital in Reno, offered slides of children’s decaying teeth. He came armed with statistics — 60 percent of the U.S. population lives in an area with fluoridated water. These areas have 30 percent less childhood decay than nonfluoridated areas; Washoe County children in the Headstart program had 15 percent more cavities than Las Vegas Headstart children. (It should be noted that this is one of the rare areas in which Clark County ranks better than the rest of the state.)

Rosenberg talked about baby root canals.

“It’s important to protect the dental health of the population, particularly children,” testified Sen. Bernice Matthews, D-Reno, the bill’s sponsor.

Senators knew opposition was coming, though. Near the front of the audience sat mothers of a certain age, good posture and primly dressed, clutching Internet printouts.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, asked dentist Tyree Davis if he has seen any negative effect of fluoridation.

“I’ve never heard of anyone growing a third eye, or anything like that,” he joked. Not getting much of a laugh, he got more serious. “Certainly no problems I’ve heard of.”

Then the opposition began testifying.

Michael Gerber, a Reno homeopathic doctor, said fluoride is actually an industrial waste product that U.S. industries favor putting in drinking water supplies as a way to dispose of it. He also claimed fluoride has been associated with osteoporosis, bone cancer, Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Nolan, however, noted that two or three generations have grown up with fluoride in their water. “There haven’t been any deformities that I’ve heard of,” Nolan said.

Janine Hansen, head of the libertarian group Nevada Eagle Forum and president of the Independent American Party, testified about the dangers of fluoride, saying they include a risk of suicide. “Brain function is vulnerable to fluoride,” she said. “This is about civil liberties, medicating people through their water,” she said.

And thus the crux of the issue — this is government ordering you to ingest something even if you don’t want it.

Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, agreed that there was something particularly Nevada about the opposition to fluoridation.

“There’s a distrust of anything that the government says is good,” he said. “Why are you a better guardian of my health than I am? It’s reflexive.”

Still, Anderson, a native Nevadan, compared it to immunizations that helped eliminate diseases such as smallpox.

Giunchigliani, asked about the opposition after the hearing, had a different take.

“It says we’re very backward,” she said.

The dentists and public health advocates made their earnest arguments.

Rosenberg seemed confounded by the opposition.

“I don’t understand what they’re thinking,” he said. He noted that no fluoride in the water increases customers for the dentists. “Maybe it’s the dental association funding all this opposition.”

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By Lenny_V

4/7/09 at 2:22 a.m.

Suggest removal

So, Giunchigliani is behind the fluoride poisoning in the Clark Country water, and she calls it "backward" to be against it. I hope the b takes a backward dive off a cliff in the next election.
By nyscof

4/7/09 at 3:47 a.m.

Suggest removal

Over 2,200 professionals urge the US Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted, citing scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. See statement: http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.....

Also, eleven Environmental Protection Agency employee unions representing over 7000 environmental and public health professionals called for a moratorium on drinking water fluoridation programs across the country, and have asked EPA management to recognize fluoride as posing a serious risk of causing cancer in people.

Last election day, 53 US cities rejected fluoridation joining a growing list of communities saying "No," to fluoridation

Adverse health effects of fluoride http://www.FluorideAction.net/health

Fluoridation 101
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof
By bdover

4/7/09 at 8:14 a.m.

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I thought Clark County was the Nevada home of racist, uneducated redneck dumbbells. But it's nice to read that northern Nevada is actually worse. A world of Randy Weaver worshiping toothless, tobacco chewin' gun toting goofs. Great article, LV Sun.
By jannybird75

4/7/09 at 9:28 a.m.

Suggest removal

There is much evidence that fluoride crosses the blood-brain barrier, thus its danger in dementia and alzheimers. How about parents taking responsibility to teach their children basic oral hygiene? What happened to that? I grew up in an area with no flouride in the water, and my teeth are beautiful because I was taught at a young age to clean them properly. Maybe we need to focus on this in schools, if parents aren't going to do it at home. And, make softdrinks cost ten times as much as milk, instead of so much less, and maybe parents will stop "feeding" it to their kids...it's not food!! Also, if one chooses to use flouride, it is readily available in almost every toothpaste and as a prescription rinse from your dentist.
By fvbump82

4/7/09 at 11:32 a.m.

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NOW I understand why there is a dentist on every corner in Las Vegas/North Las Vegas. It's all the people having their caries repaired because they drink unfluorinated water. I grew up on well water (no fluoride)in the midwest. I have a great mouth of crowns and many memories of hours in the dental chair.
By nyscof

4/8/09 at 3:32 p.m.

Suggest removal

Here's the link you requested

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml...
By rejco100

4/8/09 at 7:54 p.m.

Suggest removal

How about pure & clean H2O only coming out of the tap; people can buy Fluoride poison pills from the dentist's office.
By wachry

4/8/09 at 8:40 p.m.

Suggest removal

Man, some of you guys are going to be really pissed when you find out they put chlorine in there too. Did you know that its poisonous? And there is no cure. Read for yourself: http://www.health.state.ny.us/environmen...
I think its time for you all to run to your bunker and prepare for the apocalypse.
By NativNV

4/19/09 at 10:18 a.m.

Suggest removal

Chlorine has demonstrable health benefits to 100% of the population - keeping the water system clean of harmful bacteria. The benefits greatly outweigh any potential harm.

X percent of Nevadans have bad dental care habits, so we move to put floride in the water; 2x have ED, 3x have some chronic pain, 4x are depressed, - so why don't we just add Viagra, Vicodin, and Prozac to the water supply too?

This is the wholey WRONG approach - killing a fly by setting off an atom bomb.

The cure for dental problems - brush your teeth!!!
By kbwerx

4/21/09 at 6:16 a.m.

Suggest removal

a few points:

Chlorine, necessary anti-bacterial additive for public distributed water supply, though undesirable and harmful for consumption, can easily be filtered out at the tap by any commercial filter, widely and cheaply available for both drinking and shower heads, too.

Fluoride can only be filtered by much more expensive reverse osmosis for drinking water and extremely expensive for whole house filtration.

Fluoride has also been linked to hypo-thyroid conditions, much affecting large percentage of obesity in US population.

Fluoride is widely available in most commercial mouth washes, toothpastes, prescriptions.

I am hardly a redneck hillbilly. Progressive and concerned people from across political, educational and religious spectrum are opposed to mandatory poisoning of the public water supply with fluoride.

The poor chap, who grew up on well water... sad story... poor dental hygiene perhaps? sodas and sugars, empty carbs perhaps?

Why does all the population have to suffer because individual families are not doing the necessary training of their offspring in basic dental and dietary hygiene?

kb

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