LURAY, June 26 — On Thursday, the Town of Luray issued a notice to all residents and municipal water customers that the long-held practice of adding fluoride to the Town’s drinking water will cease in September.
“Based on significant discussions and updates by Town staff, the Town Council [has] elected to discontinue the addition of fluoride to its drinking water,” the Town’s June 26 notice states. “Due to the required ninety (90) day notification period by the Virginia Department of Health – Office of Drinking Water, the Town will stop adding fluoride to its drinking water in early September 2025.”
The Notice was distributed to all Luray water customers in the June 25 utility bill. Hand-delivered copies of the Notice were distributed to apartment complexes and other groups and individuals on Tuesday, June 24.
While the benefits of adding fluoride to public drinking water to aid in dental health has been debated since the practice began in the United States in 1945, the Town of Luray started the practice about a quarter century ago. The key benefit was aimed at preventing tooth decay. However, with improvements to dental care products like toothpaste and mouthwash (most have fluoride added), many have questioned the true benefits of fluoride in drinking water, which is immediately swallowed and doesn’t remain in the mouth cavity very long (as opposed to toothpaste or mouthwash).
“The benefits are less significant now than they were back then,” Luray Town Manager Bryan Chrisman said on Thursday afternoon.
The triggers that brought the fluoride discussion to the forefront during a May 27 council meeting were cost and availability. Fluoride has become increasing difficult to purchase, with fewer U.S. suppliers, according to Chrisman, and many of those depending on overseas producers. With supply chain interruptions in recent years, the cost of powered fluoride had tripled over the last five years. After being unable to obtain the powered form, the Town switched to liquid fluoride in recent months and saw the price double again.
“No one had anything and the cost kept going up and up,” Chrisman noted. “Finally, we started asking, ‘Do we even need to be doing this?’”
In addition, the switchover to liquid this spring prompted about $10,000 in upgrades at the water plant to better control the distribution of fluoride in the drinking water.
“We have naturally occurring fluoride in our water sources, and that can vary in raw source water… That makes it very hard to regulate what’s going out because once it’s added, there’s no way to get it out,” Chrisman said. “It is monitored every day.”
While Town staff will no longer have to handle or store 600-pound barrels of fluoride after September, the upgrades recently made at the water plant were not in vain. The same reasoning for changing the pump assembly will benefit the plant in terms of chlorine disrtibution in the water, which is also in liquid form and used as a disinfectant.
The fluoridation process for drinking water started in Grand Rapids, Michigan as World War II was ending because studies showed that areas with naturally occurring fluoride in water supplies was linked to lower rates of cavities. By 1962, the U.S. Public Health Service officially recommended adding fluoride to public water supplies according to the American Cancer Society. As mentioned above, Luray has some naturally occurring fluoride in its water sources, so some of those benefits may remain after the addition of fluoride ceases.
The Town of Luray expects to save between $15,000 to $20,000 annually. The Town of Timberville in Rockingham County is taking the same steps as Luray to cease the addition of fluoride to its drinking water for basically the same reasons. Many localities have never added fluoride to its water supply.
The decision was not definitive by the Luray Council, which cast a 3-2 vote on June 9 to end the process. Council members Chuck Butler and Jerry Dofflemyer voted against the motion, while councilmen Joey Sours, Jason Pettit and Ron Vickers voted in favor of the cost-saving measure.
Councilman Alex White once again abstained.
Original article online at: https://pagevalleynews.com/luray-will-stop-adding-fluoride-to-drinking-water/