Palm Beach County commissioners to vote on fluoridation

Patricia Moreell of Boca Raton has been fighting fluoride for a dozen years. Twelve years ago, she recalled, she appeared before the Palm Beach County Commission to speak against fluoridating the water supply that serves the unincorporated area – including West Boca Raton and West Delray Beach. Fluoride has long been considered beneficial to teeth. […]

Fluoridation:  What’s Being Ignored

For fifty-five years, the promotion of water fluoridation was justified by the theory that fluoride, incorporated into tooth enamel during childhood, would result in teeth resistant to decay.  This prior dogma was conclusively swept away three years ago by the same authorities that long declared the theory “scientifically undebatable.”  Its import was barely noted in […]

Piney Point: An ecological powder keg

The defunct Piney Point fertilizer plant is a disaster in the making. The 700 million gallons of acidic water in the gypsum storage stack threatens to break through the walls and spill into Tampa Bay. Even if the square mound’s walls of fine, white, packed gypsum hold, rains threaten to push the water up and […]

Piney Point: Bending the rules at Piney Point, a $140-million mess.

The earthen embankment containing the Piney Point waste has suffered from structural problems requiring patching with gravel. (2003, Times Archive) [ CERRI, LARA | St. Petersburg Times ] The warning signs were clear: The Piney Point fertilizer plant was headed for disaster. State regulators knew in 1995 that the owner, Mulberry Corp., was struggling. If […]

DEP says Piney Point biggest threat to environment

MANATEE COUNTY — A top Department of Environmental Protection official said Tuesday that the defunct Piney Point phosphate plant is the state’s biggest threat to the environment. “This site constitutes one of the largest risks to the environment in Florida’s history,” DEP Deputy Secretary Allan Bedwell said. “It’s our most significant environmental challenge.” In a […]

Fluoride debate on tap in Palm Beach

Fluoride. It’s in toothpaste, in dental washes for elementary school kids, in special drops and tablets. In minuscule amounts, it occurs naturally in food and even in nonfluoridated water. This summer, after a 12-year respite, Palm Beach County commissioners will take up the decades-old debate again. Fluoride: magic bullet or poison. “Fluoridating water is the […]

Pinellas County Targeted with Fluoride Proposal

Two-thirds of Pinellas County residents don’t have fluoridated water, but that could soon change. Pinellas County commissioners appear likely to vote in favor of adding fluoride, possibly in the next month. “I don’t know why we don’t do it already,” said Commissioner Calvin Harris. “I think it’s one of those old holdovers that’s never been […]

Palm Beach to consider adding fluoride to water system

Citing overwhelming public-health benefits, most Palm Beach County commissioners are leaning toward adding fluoride to the county water system. Before the 350,000 people served by the Water Utilities Department get fluoridated water, the County Commission must weigh the science, emotion and politics. Adding fluoride to the water is an obvious step to Robert H. Dumbaugh, […]

Waste Water Heading To Gulf With Federal OK

PALMETTO – The federal government on Wednesday gave the state permission to dump more than half a billion gallons of waste water from the abandoned Piney Point phosphate plant into the Gulf of Mexico. But an improved way to treat the water could cut the amount dumped in the Gulf – possibly by 1 million […]