The Tellico Area Services System (TASS) unanimously voted to remove fluoride from its water supply on August 20, after hearing public opinion regarding the addition of the chemical to local faucets around the county.
While plenty of customer comments were heard by Board Members at the August meeting, TASS Superintendent Mark Clinton emphasized that worries for him and his constituents, while all-encompassing, extends past pure public concern.
“We evaluated the safety factors with the employees handling the fluoride,” Clinton said. “Fluoricidic acid is in fact an acid in its raw form and it’s very dangerous to handle.
“It’s also a very corrosive chemical. It’ll eat metal, metal pipes, concrete … so the environmental damage to the building and our equipment was also another consideration.”
Clinton continued, stating that TASS was required to follow protocol with the Tennessee Department of Health prior to the decision for removal by providing a public notice to their customers, public notices in local papers as well as holding the aforementioned town-hall style meeting to let residents voice their support or their concern.
Clinton recalled a healthy mix of both parties, though he said support for the removal of the substance was the popular opinion to be had that evening.
But this wasn’t a decision made on a whim, or a vote hinging on a few local protestors. In congruence with the unprecedented growth in East Tennessee, TASS is currently in development of a new $30 million facility that will have at least 90% of the engineering completed by the end of October.
Clinton told The News-Herald that, due to its aforementioned damaging nature in concentrated forms, fluoride was never a part of the construction or engineering plans when developing this new space.
“Instead of waiting two years for that plant to come online, we just wanted to go ahead and stop the process now,” Clinton said.
Safety of employees was a primary stressor for TASS executives, though the group was also keen to the wants and needs of those who experience their product every time they turn on their sink or shower. Clinton stated that a large swath of commenters and feedback-givers prioritized a choice in their consumption, rather than a reactionary aversion to the chemical altogether.
“I think the argument is that if [fluoride] is in there, we have no choice,” Clinton said. “We have to drink water. But if it’s not in there, we have a choice to go with treatments like toothpaste or mouth rinses.”
Currently, TASS serves around 1,800 customers in Loudon County and a similar number in Monroe County that will be impacted by the cessation of fluoride in water systems. In Loudon County specifically, the move will affect the city of Greenback, the Glendale community and a stretch of land extending from Vonore up to Highway 321 in Lenoir City.
In March, a state Senate bill failed to pass that would limit the supply of fluoride in public water systems. The bill called for a reduction in the amount present in the current systems, decreasing from 1.5 milligrams to 0.4 milligrams per liter.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends about 0.7 milligrams per liter, equivalent to roughly three drops of water in a 55-gallon tank.
More pushes for the chemical’s removal have been stalled or failed completely across East Tennessee in recent months. Gatlinburg City Commission entertained the idea earlier in the summer, before withdrawing the sentiment and potential agenda item via a letter to the public following feedback from residents.
In June, Knox County Commissioner Andy Fox drafted an ordinance that would see the removal of the substance altogether, though no further updates on the progress of that proposal have been made available.
When emailing the Tennessee Department of Health in an attempt to understand the public opinion, as well as the official opinion of the entity, The News-Herald got the following answer in response:
“The Department will not speculate or provide perspective regarding the public discourse or veracity of information made in a public forum by elected officials or appointed representatives of any Tennessee jurisdiction,” the letter reads.
The News-Herald also asked the Tennessee Department of Health to detail some oral health benefits or common misconceptions surrounding fluoride in the same email, both of which went unanswered.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the substance can strengthen tooth enamel as well as prevent further damage to teeth that have been exposed to harmful bacteria.
In an interview with The News-Herald, another representative from the Tennessee Department of Health pointed to Calgary, Canada, as a shining example for the side effects that come with a lack of fluoride — stating that dental related surgeries and medications have skyrocketed nearly 700% since the city elected to remove the substance in 2011.
Just recently, fluoride has been re-introduced into the Calgary water supply.
The fluoride supply in TASS water systems is already decreasing, with the expectation that it will be completely absent from the company’s supply within the next 30 days.
Original article online at: https://www.news-herald.net/news/tass-votes-to-remove-fluoride-from-loudon-monroe-county-water-supplies/article_5857f68b-9ff1-46b4-b87a-ba066ed4c231.html