The Columbia Board of Health listened to a report from an EPA senior scientist at Thursday’s meeting about fluoridation of the city’s water supply.

At the meeting, Dr. William Hirzy spoke on a conference call from Washington D.C. He pointed out that long-term accumulation of fluoride will activate G-protein which might affect the function with other cells in the human body. He also mentioned a Chinese IQ study that children’s IQ in high fluoridated areas see a decrease, where fluoridation level was set at two to four parts per million. Finally, he recommended not putting any fluoride into the water.

Mahree Skala, with the Board of Health, said the board has reviewed a wide variety of studies from the Centers for Disease Control, American Dental Association, and the World Health Organization, which show a favor of fluoridation in public water supply at an optimal level, 0.7 parts per million. She later pointed out that the Chinese IQ study might have some measure of errors mentioned in the same article.

Board members will decide whether to lower the current fluoridatin level from 0.7 to 0.3 parts per million, or to switch from using Hydroflouric Sodium Acid, or HFSA, to sodium fluoride.

“I think that switching to another form of fluoride is almost no improvement at all. It will cost over $500,000 just to set up the equipment to make a change,” said Dan Redmond, who attended the meeting.

The Board of Health will make a final recommendation on fluoridation to the city council in April.

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