York to vote on fluoridation

YORK — Months of sparring between proponents and opponents leave plenty of room for disagreement about putting fluoride in York’s drinking water. But there’s no doubt about this: No means yes when voters go to the polls Tuesday. That’s right. No means the York CityCouncil’s 8-0 vote last summer is upheld. No means York joins […]

Onlookers mum on Watsonville fluoride suit

WATSONVILLE — No group supporting or opposing fluoridation of the city’s water supplies has weighed in on Watsonville’s lawsuit against the state Department of Health Services. Not yet, anyway. The arguments of these groups could determine whether a judge forces the city, against the will of the voters, to comply with the state’s mandate to […]

Fluoride initiative drive begins in Pierce County

A group of Pierce County residents is sponsoring an initiative and petition drive to force a public vote before water suppliers can put fluoride in their drinking water. The move derives from last year’s decision by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Board to order the county’s larger water purveyors to fluoridate their water. The health board […]

Layton Utah resists fluoride mandate

LAYTON — Frustrated over rising costs to fluoridate the city’s drinking water, Layton City leaders will swim against the tide of what has become a controversial public health mandate. Council members at a Thursday work meeting balked at fluoridating the city’s five wells, citing implementation costs they say are four times higher than Davis County […]

In the Shadow of Danger: The Chemical Plant Peril

At a sleepy council meeting in December, Paulsboro’s emergency-management coordinator waited his turn. Then, Glenn Roemmich stood, cleared his throat, and matter-of-factly suggested that the Gloucester County river town needed six-story warning sirens – “in case something happens” at the neighboring refinery. But to warn of what? It could be a small leak of hydrogen […]

Fort Collins Health Board: Fluoride OK

The Larimer County Board of Health “strongly” recommended Fort Collins continue fluoridating its tap water in the latest installment of a two-year debate marked by anxieties over public health. The board’s five-page consensus findings released Thursday now go to the City Council, which could remove the liquid form of fluoride known as hydrofluorosilicic acid, or […]

DuPont confronted over chemical’s safety

EPA and W. Va. lawsuit challenge risks posed by C-8, used to make Teflon Environmental regulators and a class action lawsuit have challenged the safety of a chemical the DuPont Co. uses to make Teflon, its best-known brand. As part of an ongoing review of ammonium perfluorooctanoate, also called C-8, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency […]

Health Board Practices Dubious

LAYTON — Bill Luce, who as a member of the Davis County Board of Health pushed for water fluoridation, is co-owner of a company now designing fluoridation systems for cities and water companies along the Wasatch Front. That bothers fluoridation opponents, who have been writing letters and e-mails to elected leaders and newspapers, grumbling about […]