OzarksFirst spoke to Osage Beach Mayor Michael Harmison about his push to remove fluoride from the city’s water system.
“I was just elected mayor about three years ago, and I’ve not been in politics before. I am a businessman that basically kind of got upset with the system. So I ran against the system, and here I am now three years later. I was reelected last year. I first brought up about three years ago, I was new and did not get a lot of traction with the water department, but most recently I had the pleasure of appointing a new public works director and touring our system around the lake. I told him that I was wanting to get rid of the fluoride under water and he said tended to be the same mindset as me,” Harmison said.
Harmison says he has done his research into his idea.
“I did a lot of research. That’s kind of what I do with things I’m interested in, and even though I’m not a dentist, all the research is readily available and found out that the fluoride, especially in excess, you can cause thyroid problems, it can cause children to be less intelligent. There’s all sorts of medical things that can happen to the system by a municipality putting in pharmaceutical items without our communities approval. It’s been happening here in Osage Beach since the 90s. This started back in the 1940s, nationwide, because at that time we did not have fluoride toothpaste, we did not have readily available fluoride mouthwash. A lot of times people didn’t go to the dentist. So I can see where at one time that was the mindset and was a necessity, but over the years fluoride is pretty much in every toothpaste mouthwash. We currently have fluoride in our existing well water, so there’s no longer a need, in my opinion, for the City of Osage Beach to mandate that we put a pharmaceutical in the water, and so I would like to take it out of the water, and those that say that we need it, well, they can brush your teeth more, they can go to the dentist more, they can use mouthwash more, but for safety reasons, I would like to eliminate it from our water system.”
The American Medical Association and the American Dental Association have long-held opinions in support of water fluoridation.
Missouri’s state health department’s webpage on water fluoridation says under “Facts about Water Fluoridation,” that ‘Fluoridation is safe,’ ‘Fluoridation is the least expensive and most effective way to reduce tooth decay,’ and ‘People drinking fluoridated water have 20 to 40 percent less tooth decay.’
“We had about 130 comments and by far the majority were taken out of our water. Ironically enough, a couple of those that are in favor of keeping in there, their argument is that the majority that want to get rid of it were conspiracy theorists,” Harmison said. “We even had somebody comment from Kansas City saying, ‘What do you folks know down there? Most of you don’t have teeth anyway,” Harmison said. “I’m simply about the health part of it. We have access to fluoride, like I said earlier, with toothpaste and washing your mouth.”
Harmison says it’s not an official move yet, something that would take a board vote and time.
“Before we can take a vote, there’s a 90-day process that we need to let the public aware of what we may or may not do. We’re a democracy. If the citizens of Osage Beach say, we want to continue, if the board says we want to continue it, then I will accept that. It’s kind of my personal view is that we need to get rid of it,” Harmison said. “We have a lot to do before we make a decision, and we are going to involve the public. We do plan to have a public hearing and there are some legal things that we have to do to notice, notify everybody of our possible intentions.”
Harmison says if the city votes to remove fluoride after the months-long process, it could be as early as 2026 when the fluoride would be gone from city water.
Original article online at: https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/osage-beach-mayor-explains-push-to-remove-fluoride-from-city-water/