The Times’ editorial regarding the fluoridating of Valparaiso’s water in the future did get one thing right. The answer to this important question is getting easier, but not in the way the editorial states. Many of us who have done the research believe that once the scientific facts are revealed, fluoride will eventually fall the way of asbestos, mercury and lead.

That’s what Wichita, Portland, Honolulu and hundreds of communities have recently done. Like Valparaiso, they have chosen not to have a status quo attitude about public water. Many more cities like Dallas and Austin are lining up to do the same because the science, not old dogma, is leading the way.

Instead of repeating the hype from half a century ago — and by people who really never studied fluoride properly in the first place — let’s really look at what is causing the concern.

Yes, fluoride occurs naturally in some waters and so do other toxics like lead and arsenic. What the editorial didn’t tell you is public municipalities are using a synthetic waste version of fluoride, mostly scrubbed from the exhaust stacks of phosphate fertilizer plants. And it’s not the pharmaceutical fluoride in toothpaste, which advises you to seek immediate help from a poison control center if you swallow anything larger than a pea size serving. There’s a serious reason behind the warning.

This is where real science legitimizes our concerns about what this halogen is doing to our teeth and body tissues.

The editorial didn’t explain international peer-reviewed studies have confirmed fluoride eventually wears down the enamel of a tooth surface, rather than improving it. In fact, 41 percent of younger Americans now have some type of dental fluorosis, the pitting and discoloring of the teeth from an overexposure of fluoride.

And it doesn’t stop there. More international teams have found fluoride can negatively affect the thyroid, the brain, the nervous system, and is a proven contributor to bone cancer in young boys.

Even the vaunted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning that fluoridated water should not be mixed with baby formula because its fluoride dose is 250 times greater than mother’s breast milk.

What Valparaiso is addressing is a combination of ethics and future risk management.

Should a public municipality be in charge of an individual’s oral hygiene? And if fluoridated water is in everything from processed foods to taking a shower, then managing the dosage is absolutely impossible.

The real junk science regarding fluoride is the copy-and-paste statements made by propagandists from 60 years ago, and still being advanced by those who are unwilling to do the real research. We deserve better.

Gary Foreman is an award-winning media producer and director specializing in long-form documentaries and specials. He and his wife Carolyn operate Native Sun Productions, a multimedia firm based in Valparaiso. The opinions are the writer’s.