News Archive

BELLOWS FALLS — It will be up to voters to decide next year if the village should continue its 30-year practice of fluoridating its water after some local officials raised concerns over its alleged health implications. Bellows Falls Village President Charles Jarras said Thursday that an Australian ballot question before village voters at the annual […]

The Safe Water Advocates of Burlington (SWAB) urged the Burlington City Council last week to remove fluoride from the city’s drinking water, charging that it was “toxic waste” and a “by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry.” Burlington has been fluoridating city water since 1952, using a chemcial called hydrofluorosilicic acid. In June, the Burlington Board […]

BELLOWS FALLS — Village trustees listened to arguments on both sides of the water fluoridation issue at their regular board meeting on Tuesday. Health officials, activists and science writers traveled from Keene and Charlestown, N.H., and from Springfield and Burlington, to state why they think adding fluoride to public water supplies is good policy, or […]

BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. Village trustees in Bellows Falls (Vermont) plan this week to revisit a long-running debate over adding fluoride to public water supplies. The village has done so for three decades in an effort to fight tooth decay. But now Luise Light — a trustee who is also a nutritionist — is urging her […]

BELLOWS FALLS — Trustees plan to revisit whether to continue adding fluoride to the public water system after health concerns were raised about the tooth decay-fighting additive. The Bellows Falls Board of Trustees agreed to hold a public hearing Aug. 23 to discuss the issue of fluoride, which has been added to the drinking water […]

BELLOWS FALLS — Though most of the water talk in the village has been about that which goes over the dam, the Trustees have begun discussing the water that goes into their constituents’ bodies. And while it is hard to imagine another liquid issue dividing residents as much as the dam controversy, the emerging topic […]

BELLOWS FALLS — Bellows Falls may soon join the debate over whether to remove fluoride from residents’ drinking water. Village trustees touched on the question Tuesday night and will seek community input at their next meeting in two weeks. Trustee Luise Light, a nutritionist, said on Wednesday the question is becoming increasingly urgent for Vermont […]

The Burlington Board of Health voted 3-2 Wednesday night to recommend to the City Council that Burlington continue fluoridating its drinking water but consider reducing the amount of fluoride used. The decision came after two anti-fluoridation motions failed by the same 3-2 margin. Board members Alan Sousie and Jay Vos, who argued against fluoridation, wanted […]

Depending on who spoke at a public hearing in Burlington City Hall on Thursday night, water fluoridation is either a safe and effective public health measure that has markedly reduced dental decay in the more than half-century of its use or it is an unsafe form of mandatory medication based on outdated science. About 80 […]

Two scientific studies focusing on the safety of the chemicals for water fluoridation most commonly used by cities across the country — including Burlington — have become a part of the Burlington debate on whether to continue fluoridating the city’s water supply. One study suggests there might be a link between use of the fluoridation […]