Texarkana plans joint fluoride hearing

Proponents and opponents of fluoridation will have one more chance to publicly express their views on adding fluoride to the city water supply. Texas-side city officials unanimously agreed at a meeting Monday night to conduct a citywide public hearing they will hold in conjunction with the Texarkana, Ark., Board of Directors from noon to 4 […]

Brighter Smiles and Brittle Bones

Fluoride in the water is nothing new – it has come out of area faucets in naturally occurring amounts for years – but now significant quantities are being pumped into our supply for consumption. San Antonio Water System and BexarMet started injecting fluoride into their combined 34 pumping stations Aug. 1. By Aug. 15, or […]

Doctor says fluoride’s benefits may be overstated – Says studies show risks

Doctors and dentists used to believe that ingested fluoride was incorporated into developing teeth, but new research shows the chemical’s decay-fighting properties are provided only by surface contact with teeth, a doctor said Wednesday. Dr. Donald Currie, director of pediatric rehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, told a gathering […]

Fluoride causes surge in filter sales

Ruby Mann went out three times in the past 35 years to vote against fluoridation of the city’s drinking water supply. This week, she found herself among many San Antonians buying equipment to remove most of the mineral from their water. On Thursday, fluorosilicic acid – a chemical containing the teeth-protecting mineral – began flowing […]

Fluoride is on tap for San Antonio

After three divisive elections and decades of bitter debate, San Antonio begins fluoridating its drinking water next week  finally shedding its distinction as one of the last large U.S. cities to shun the cavity-fighting mineral. The first shipment of the chemical known as fluorosilicic acid arrived in San Antonio by tanker truck Thursday. By next […]

Under The Volcano (Part I)

“By design, you know, you have these failures,” he says. As part of its agreement with the TNRCC, Crown put in a $1.3 million scrubber to attack the problem of excess sulfur emissions. Critics railed that the company was skirting other, costlier controls. But even Abraham concedes that Crown’s sulfur dioxide emissions are way down. […]

Under the Volcano (Part II)

Old facilities such as Crown’s Pasadena refinery benefit from another provision in the law favorable to polluters. Plants in existence before the Texas Clean Air Act of 1971 were exempted from a permit requirement mandating that facilities use the best available controls to cut pollution. Only if these grandfathered facilities added significant new sources of […]

Crown chemical leak sends six to area hospitals

Six people were sent to the hospital for observation Tuesday evening when an operator at Crown Central Petroleum on Red Bluff opened a valve that contained a mixture of petroleum and hydrofluoric acid at approximately 5 p.m. Bruce Hicks, spokesman for Crown, said the six were transported as a precaution because they might have inhaled […]