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Activists Focused on Anti-Fluoridation Intiative for November Ballot

By Hector Perez

 

Austin activists are looking to place an initiative on November’s ballot that would end fluoridation of the city’s water supply.

 

The practice became a part of the city’s water treatment process after a public referendum in 1973. Decades later, opponents say that the fluoridation process puts the community at risk.

 

“It’s a toxic waste,” said fluoridation opponent Nicholas Lucier. “Once it hits the tank to come to your water supply it’s all of a sudden medicinal benefit for your teeth.”

 

To get the initiative on the ballot, Lucier will have to collect and submit 20,000 signatures by the middle of July. He’s teaming up with local activist groups after past presentations before city council proved to be unsuccessful.

 

“They have their backs turned to this,” Lucier said. “They won’t discuss it.”

 

Water fluoridation was first implemented in the United States in the 1940s after several studies discovered that fluoride prevented tooth decay. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 74.6 percent of the U.S. population and 79 percent of Texas’ population had access to fluoridated water in 2012.

 

In the years since its implementation, the practice has been criticized by activists who warn of its negative effects. According to the Flouride Action Network website, these effects include bone deterioration, thyroid disease, cardiovascular disease, and endocrine disruption.

 

Conversely, the CDC’s website states that current scientific evidence does not support a link between water fluoridation and negative health effects.Travis County Medical Director Phil Huang says allegations made by fluoridation opponents are often misleading.

 

“Some of the studies that are cited with some of these risks are at concentrations that are so much higher than what we’re talking about with community water fluoridation,” Huang said. “I mean, even water at high concentrations can be toxic.”

 

Activists also cite the use of hydrofluorosilicic acid in the fluoridation process as an area of high concern. Huang says the acid does not pose threat to the community.“

 

When they’re producing it, some of it goes to use for fertilizer and some of it is used to produce the acid used for community water fluoridation,” Huang said. “They try to make it sound so bad because it’s in this chemical fertilizer, but it’s just a chemical process.”

 

A statement from Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s office voiced his disagreement with any attempt at suspending the practice.

 

“I am strongly opposed to the elimination of water fluoridation,” Leffingwell said in the statement. “I believe it has helped to improve the dental health of several generations of Austinites.”

 

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended that the acceptable level for fluoride in community water be lowered from between 0.7 and 1.2 milligrams per liter to 0.7 milligrams per liter. The change was made because of the increase in sources of fluoride available to the public since the guideline’s inception in 1962.

 

According to the Austin Water Utility website, the city’s water fluoride levels stand at an average of 0.61 milligrams per liter.

 

In May of last year, the city of Portland, Ore., rejected an initiative to add fluoride to the city’s water supply. Should water fluoridation be suspended, Austin would join the likes of College Station and Alamo Heights as cities in Texas that have suspended previously established fluoridation practices.

 

Lucier says that his group is still working to draft the anti-fluoridation petition. He recently took part in a 14-day hunger strike to raise awareness for the issue, and although the event did not receive the attention he was hoping for, he remains confident that he’ll get the support needed to put the initiative on the ballot.

 

“We’re going get 20,000 signatures; we’re going put ‘ending artificial fluoridation’ on the ballot this November,” Lucier says. “As long as we have an informed public just like Portland’s, we’re going to end the measure this year.”

 

 

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