Rutland city voters spoke loud and clear Tuesday that they want to keep fluoride in the municipal water.
A ballot article asking voters to approve a Rutland charter change that would ban fluoride from the city water supply failed on Town Meeting Day. There were 2,031 votes against the proposal and 1,334 in favor of it, according to unofficial election results gathered by PEGTV local access television.
Rutland city water has been fluoridated since 1983, a practice that’s been implemented in various parts of the country because it’s been found to prevent tooth decay. But opponents of local water fluoridation — who petitioned to get the article on the ballot this year — questioned whether the practice truly promoted oral health.
Rutland-area dentists welcomed the vote results Tuesday evening. Voters had rejected a similar ballot article in 2016.
“It’s reassuring that they listen to the science and the history and the long-standing effectiveness that we’ve seen with water fluoridation,” said Judith Fisch, a dentist who has been practicing in Rutland for about 35 years and who has served on the board of trustees of the American Dental Association.
“I think that was the right decision for future generations,” Fisch said in an interview.
According to data from the Vermont Department of Health, as of 2020, there were 72 public water systems in Vermont that fluoridate and serve some 213,400 people. These systems include five with naturally occurring optimal levels of fluoride.
The state has a total of 465 public water systems that serve about 380,000 people, or 60% of Vermonters, the data shows.
In 2009, Plainfield voters decided to stop fluoridating their water.
But communities that have chosen to fluoridate or not have largely maintained the status quo. During Town Meeting Day last year, Enosburg residents chose to keep their water fluoridated. In 2015, Bennington voters decided to maintain their water supply unfluoridated, a similar position that Brattleboro voters had taken twice before.
Opponents of water fluoridation have questioned whether the practice truly prevents tooth decay — although the scientific evidence behind this connection is the reason it’s been implemented so broadly.
Some blame the additive for causing a variety of physical and mental health problems, but doctors and dentists question the veracity of these findings.
Vermont health department officials have said Vermont communities that fluoridate their water maintain the optimal fluoride concentration of 0.7 parts per million, with the state monitoring the concentration levels.
Others, who describe fluoride as a drug, argue that local officials need to gather city residents’ informed consent before adding it into the water supply.
Jack Crowther, a prominent opponent of fluoridation in Rutland, said those who advocated for change “took a beating” during Town Meeting Day.
“By my calculation, the margin was about what it was in 2016,” he said. Crowther said that, after spearheading a ballot question that year and this year, he does not see himself leading a ballot petition again.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, Crowther had placed ads in the Rutland Herald calling on residents to support the charter change. The issue has been a hot topic regionally, with people submitting letters to the editor or commentaries on both sides of the water fluoridation issue.
Mayor Mike Doenges said people are increasingly concerned about being able to make decisions on issues related to their health, but that the vote Tuesday showed the majority of Rutland voters wanted to keep the fluoridation decision with the city public works commissioner.
“I think that greater good wants to see (the water supply) still be managed by those who have that education, who have that understanding,” Doenges said Tuesday evening. ”The doctors and the dentists and, in our case, the Vermont Department of Health have all recommended that we put fluoride in the water.”
Dentists have emphasized that fluoride is safe at appropriate levels and maintains oral health. They’ve said that stopping water fluoridation would see a return to higher rates of tooth decay and diseases in Rutland — an area that is facing a steep shortage of dentists.
A representative of the Vermont State Dental Society earlier said there have been thousands of scientific studies of fluoride, and none show any link to serious health problems, such as neurological toxicity and cancer that the opponents have brought up. But the dentists acknowledged that too much fluoride intake during childhood can lead to dental fluorosis, or changes in the appearance of tooth enamel.
In a Jan. 29 public hearing on the charter change proposal, Rutland resident Lopi LaRoe said installing a household system to remove fluoride from tap water is too costly. If Rutland water stopped being fluoridated, she said, those who want to include it in their drinking water can choose to use a fluoride additive.
“I think it’s unfair to put the onus on the people who don’t want it in their water,” she said.
Original article online at: https://vtdigger.org/2024/03/05/rutland-votes-to-keep-fluoride-in-city-water/