Some say fluoride fights decay, others say it's a hazard in water
The assertion is hard to ignore:
"There is a poison in the tap water."
Those words and a picture of a faucet with a skull and crossbones were in a flyer about fluoride that Mt. Clemens officials found posted in the city during the debate over whether to continue adding fluoride to the city's drinking water.
In a dramatic reversal of a public health initiative aimed at stopping tooth decay in 1951, city commissioners voted 6-0 last month to stop fluoridation.
The action, which city officials say would save more than $40,000 per year, comes as debate over fluoride's benefits versus its possible adverse effects -- ranging from spotted teeth to suspicions that it increases the risk of bone cancer -- has gained new attention.
Other communities, such as Marcellus in southwest Michigan; Fairbanks, Alaska, and Calgary, Alberta, have also decided this year to stop fluoridating their water supplies. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a preliminary recommendation in January that communities add fluoride on the low end of what had been the accepted range.
Prominent medical boards and agencies continue to tout fluoride as safe and essential to dental health. But others, like Paul Connett, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network, consider fluoride a danger to humans. He calls fluoridation "the most bizarre public health policy that's ever been developed."
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