The Madison Utilities Board will hold a public hearing on May 13 to hear residents’ concerns or support for continuing to add fluoride to the local water supply.
The board announced in March that it would be ceasing its fluoridation process due to safety concerns about employee health, structural degradation of treatment facilities and maintenance costs, Fox 54 reported. The plan would not remove natural fluoride from the water supply, but it would halt adding any extra, which costs the city $14,000 annually.
The change will take effect in June. However, public pushback has led the board to reconsider its decision.
Several residents spoke during a board meeting Monday, expressing opposition and support for the board’s proposal to stop fluoridating the water.
Those opposed fear that the lack of fluoride in the water supply could lead to widespread dental issues, particularly among children.
“Other communities have made a similar decision only to reverse it because of what happened to the children in their community,” Mark Masterson, a pediatric dentist, said during the meeting. “…As long as I’ve been here, Matson Utilities has had a great record of cooperation with the guidelines that have benefited all of their citizens. My hope is that credible science will be considered and the benefits of this therapeutic success that has been around since the 1940s and has 80 decades — 80 decades — of literature that supports this and not just claims of speculation. I ask that you please do not take this way at the expense of our children.”
Others who supported the board’s plans cited studies showing the potential toxic dangers the accumulation of fluoride in the body could pose to brain development.
“Florida and Utah have recently passed bills that will eliminate fluoride from all drinking water in these states based on some studies,” one speaker said. “The National Toxicity Program released a report in August 2024 concluding that fluoride exposure above 1.5 milligrams per liter of exposure is associated with lower IQ in children.”
She said that while Madison’s fluoride levels are well within the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recommendation of 4.0 milligrams of fluoride per liter, other studies show a risk at far lower levels, even below 1.5 milligrams. She argued that the best way to address dental health and prevent cavities is to promote good oral hygiene and limit sugar intake.
Another speaker said fluoride’s effects on the whole body should be considered, and that the potential risks outweigh the dental benefits.
“Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel. This is not in dispute,” she said. “What I think is the biggest thing to figure out is what is the optimal way to get that fluoride to the tooth enamel. Is it by swallowing it and introducing it to every cell in our body and hoping that somehow some of it gets into our saliva and then touches the teeth before we swallow it? Again, in the meantime, doing whatever it does to all the other cells in the body? Is that really the best optimal way? I would say no.”
Melanie Stoker, a self-described scientist who spoke at the meeting, called the arguments against water fluoridation “misinformation” and “pseudo-science.”
Regardless of which side is correct, others argued that people should have the right to choose whether or not to ingest the chemical.
“I feel like both sides of this issue are pretty well dug into their opinions, and I think it’s really sad that this has become a political issue,” resident Kathy Patrick said during the meeting. “It’s really a question of public health and personal choice. I’m certainly not an expert on fluoride, but I’m smart enough to think for myself, just as most people in this room are.”
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently said he would direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending fluoridation in local water supplies and assemble a task force to study potential health risks. The EPA also announced it would review the “new science” on the possible dangers of fluoride in drinking water.
According to CDC data from 2020, only four Alabama counties have 0% water supply fluoridation: Washington, Choctaw, Bullock and Geneva.
Original article online at: https://1819news.com/news/item/madison-utilites-to-hold-public-hearing-on-plan-to-stop-adding-fluoride-to-water-supply-its-really-a-question-of-public-health-and-personal-choice