Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD)
ASTDD Fluorides Committee Annual Report Jan 1, 2020 – Dec 31, 2020.
Chair: Bruce Austin
Members: Tracy Boehmer, Susan Deming, Sahira Khalid, Jay Kumar, Jennifer Lansing, Summer Macias, Katya Mauritson, Dixianne Parker, Howard Pollick, Misty Robertson, Gina Sharps, Gwen Sullentrup, Sandy Sutton, Brad Whistler, Matt Zaborowski, Tooka Zokaie
Excerpts:
- Assess utility of our use of Curate, a data-mining company that provides a searchable database of local government meeting agendas and minutes built with “civic intelligence software [that] uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to process municipal meeting documents” and scans meeting minutes, agendas, planning documents, etc., from local government entities. We will be using the reports we can generate as a sort of early warning system on fluoridation-related activity, along with Google alerts.
- Provided a “head’s up” to send to state dental directors about the release of the National Academies National Toxicology Program’s report on fluoride and neurotoxicity (NTP Monograph on the Systematic Review of Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health Effects); provided a letter for ASTDD to submit to the National Academies with comments on the current version of the report; provided guidelines for talking points for states to use in responding to the release of the report (expected in January or February of 2021.
- Drafted a letter to send to the American Nurses Association and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments expressing concerns about the apparent biases expressed against fluoride and water fluoridation by a featured speaker in ANHE’s Maternal Child Environmental Health Webinar Series.
- Develop and maintain regular communication with ADA for fluoride issues, starting with monitoring state/local activities (local actions, referenda, etc.)
*Annual report is online at http://fluoridealert.org/wp-content/uploads/astdd.fluoride-committee-annual-report-2020.pdf
About the ASTDD
The Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) is a national non-profit organization representing the directors and staff of state/territorial public health agency programs for oral health. It was organized in 1948 and is one of 20 affiliates of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). ASTDD formulates and promotes the establishment of national dental public health policy, assists state/territorial dental programs in the development and implementation of programs and policies for the prevention of oral diseases; builds awareness and strengthens dental public health professionals’ knowledge and skills by developing position papers and policy statements; provides information on oral health to health officials and policy makers, and conducts conferences for the dental public health community.
Online at https://www.astdd.org/