The City of Abilene has had a temporary suspension on adding fluoride to the water and at the City Council meeting they decided to extend that temporary suspension for two years.

“I think it’s an awesome thing,” Abilene resident, Tammy Fogle, said. “I think it’s great because the research backs them up, not only from this ruling, but data says that fluoride is not healthy.”

Some residents of Abilene say that leaving the fluoride in the water is “forced medication.”

“Regardless of what benefits it may, or may not have, it’s forced medication and that should never be allowed in a free society,” Abilene resident, Jennifer Bell, said. “I have children and so poisoning them on a daily basis is not something I’m looking forward to doing, so I want to end water fluoridation for that reason.”

“It’s really good to pause it because, you know, because we don’t force medicate in any other area of life so why should we do this with our water,” Fogle said.

Residents said that there are several health concerns connected with adding fluoride to the water.

“You know, it’s been shown that it causes issues with pregnant women, when they are drinking the water, it does affect their fetus,” Fogle said. “It lowers IQ in children, it causes cancer. Actually, you can have fluoride toxicity, which causes other issues.”

Some people hope for the council to put it in the citizens hands to vote on whether or not they should permanently suspend fluoridation of the water.

“To me it’s exciting to see this process unfold and to see where our elected officials allow the citizens to have input and what they choose to do or are they just gonna decide for us what’s best for us,” Fogle said. “But in this situation, I think it’s best for the voters to get to say what they’re okay with and the temporary pauses allows that transition until we can get that resolved.”

“I am just really grateful to council and Mayor Hurt because they took this action on their own after the court ruling and I think that’s fantastic and wonderful,” Bell said. “And so we can work together with our representatives to make change that the citizens of Abilene want”

The residents said they are happy about continuing the temporary suspension and hope that it will eventually become permanent.

Original article online at: https://www.ktxs.com/news/local/abilene-extends-temporary-fluoride-suspension-amid-health-concerns