Its official. Palm Beach County is now a fluorinated county. The switch will be flipped later this week to begin injecting the highly controversial chemical into the County’s four public water drinking supply systems.
The vote Tuesday was 5-2, but not before Commissioner and Chairman Tony Masilotti argued that fluoridation removes citizen choice. And not before Commissioner Mary McCarty argued that medicating of water is inappropriate.
In February of last year, Commissioners approved fluoridation of water for about 420,000 people living in the communities in the western part of the county, most of them west of Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth.
Last year’s vote was split 4-2, with Commissioners McCarty and Karen Marcus voting no. Commissioners Burt Aaronson, Addie Green and Warren Newell, led by its major proponent, Commissioner Jeff Koons, supported fluoridation. Chairman Masilotti did not attend the February 2004 meeting.
Because the approval vote was not unanimous, Commissioners directed last year that actual fluoridation would not be implemented pending review of a National Academies of Science National Research Council (NRC) study. That study was due to be released last November and most recently was delayed again beyond a scheduled May release date.
Commissioner Karen Marcus changed her mind Tuesday, switching her vote to approve fluoridation. Marcus had earlier in the meeting suggested I would wait until May, and if the report’s not done, then we turn it on.
Commissioner Bert Aaronson who said, turn the spigot on now, persuaded Marcus that if the May report shows definite proof that fluoridation is a problem, turn it off then.
Fluoridation until May isn’t going to hurt anyone, Aaronson said.
County Administrator Bob Weisman repeated again Tuesday what he told The Boca News Monday: it is unlikely that the NRC Study, or any other future study, will resolve the issue. It’s just a study of all pre-existing studies, he said.
But for several who showed up Tuesday, the issue is very well resolved against fluoridation. Patricia Moreell of Boca Raton argued: why is it that the very cities crying dental crisis are those which have been fluoridated the longest and still have the greatest tooth decay?
She cited the cities of Boston, New York, Cincinnati and Washington DC.
Dr. H.J. Roberts said he was adamantly opposed to fluoridation. It’s a poison — you use it to get rid of termites.
Moreell’s group, South Florida Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, has been fighting the addition of fluoride to drinking water, claiming it is toxic and actually does little, if anything, to help tooth enamel.
Fluoride proponents said the additive has proven itself an effective anti-cavity substance through a half-century of use in municipal water supplies and in toothpaste.
This is not about tooth decay, argued Palm Beach Gardens fluoridation opponent Naomi Flack. It is naive to think that a substance powerful enough to alter tooth enamel’ will have no effect whatsoever on all other organs and tissues in the body.
Fluoridation begins Friday.
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