San Jose finally getting fluoride for city's drinking water

[alp227]

Source: SJ Mercury News

After years of debate, San Jose is finally getting fluoride in its drinking water.

A unanimous vote Tuesday by the Santa Clara Valley Water District finalized funding for the long-anticipated project for the largest city in the country without fluoridated drinking water. But it will take about two more years to retrofit local water plants to bring the additive aimed at saving children's teeth from decay to the city's taps.

"It's a big deal,'' said Marty Fenstersheib, Santa Clara County's health officer. "I used to ask people, 'What do you think of the fact we don't have fluoride in our water in San Jose?' A lot of people will tell you I didn't know we didn't have it.''

Even now, though, San Jose residents won't be getting the optimal amount of fluoride in their drinking water.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_22218776

[onehandle]

1. Teeth are a good thing. nt

[bkkyosemite]

2. I would not drink it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

36. Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids!

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Related recent head-scratcher.

I was taught and previously believed that water fluoridation was always an unmitigated public good. Then I read that the NJ Sierra Club was opposing legislation promoting fluoridation because of the use of industrial-grade fluoride.

Pharmaceutical-grade isn't automatic? You learn something new every day.

http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/12/0131/0001/

Another Push to Add Fluoride to Public Drinking Water
Assembly panel clears bill that once again pits dentists against water companies, environmentalists
By Beth Fitzgerald
January 31, 2012

Convincing a majority of lawmakers of the benefits of requiring fluoride in New Jersey’s public water supply has been like pulling teeth for years in the New Jersey.

The long-hoped for measure by dentists has consistently been opposed by some environmentalists and water companies. But on Monday, the Assembly’s health committee took another shot at moving the bill.

<>

But the bill has its critics -- water companies and environmentalists who cite its impact on the environment, potentially harmful health effects, and the cost of installing fluoridation equipment for opposing the measure.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said his organization is not opposed to water fluoridation, but he urged the committee to ban the use of industrial-grade fluoride, which may contain heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead.

"Any grade of fluoride that is not industrial will suffice," he said. “Fluoride in our water can be healthy, but not if it also contains toxic chemicals. The legislature’s job should be removing toxins, not adding them."

<>

[HuckleB]

40. The scientific consensus is clear. There is no real debate.

Alas, this is not the first time the Sierra Club has jumped the shark.

[proverbialwisdom]

43. Oh? The substitution of industrial-grade fluoride for pharmaceutical-grade is equivalent?

Just ignore the "heavy metal contaminants"?

[HuckleB]

44. And the usual "TOXINS!" psuedoscience routine is offered up.

Really?

[littlemissmartypants]

4. I too would not drink it. n/t

[yellowcanine]

5. Oh Noes! The purity of our precious bodily fluids will be compromised. The Russkies are

behind this for sure!

[WooWooWoo]

6. how many people still drink tap water?

[flamingdem]

7. I'm wrestling with this - always was worried and drank spring water

but an engineer friend made the point that the plastic bottles it comes in will add their own poisons and that water moving through pipes is probably healthier.. and that flouride is there in miniscule amounts..

How to know?

For now I just stopped tripping and drink sink water 25% of the time. Mostly to save money.

[judesedit]

8. Fluoride's poison.Do your research.You've been duped so they can dump their crap in your drinking wa

ter. Same with jet fuel, more chlorine than's necessary, etc, etc, etc.

[Archae]

9. Whatever you do, don't ever touch di-hydrogen oxide.

Or sodium chloride.

[dipsydoodle]

16. Whats the matter with table salt?

The di hyd joke reminds me of the story of a guy asking for a glass of H2O and his mate saying I'll have H2O too...........H2O2.

[Posteritatis]

18. Little Johnny took a drink...

... but he will drink no more: for what he thought was H2O was H2SO4.

[Starry Messenger]

10. Nice post General Ripper

[Chef Eric]

14. Fluoride is harmful to the thyroid gland. That is a medical fact.

There are many doctors who say that the dangers of fluoride outweigh the benefits.

http://thyroid.about.com/od/drsrichkarileeshames/a/fluoridechange.htm

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/13/fluoride-and-thyroid-dysfunction.aspx

http://drdavidbrownstein.blogspot.com/2011/01/less-fluoride-in-our-water-supply.html

[Starry Messenger]

17. Mercola is a crank.

I'll assume the other two are equally dubious.

[Chef Eric]

22. Assume all you like.

[Starry Messenger]

23. Thanks, I will.

I'm an adult who can evaluate claims. Even eating too much salt is bad for you. Drinking too much water can screw up your electrolytes. In moderation, things can be useful.

And Mercola is still a quack.

[Posteritatis]

19. about.com, mercola, and a Blogspot page. Nice. (nt)

[Chef Eric]

21. Read the label on any tube of any fluoride toothpaste.

The label is there for a reason.

[obamanut2012]

28. Mercola?!

[jberryhill]

29. Fluoride? You can DROWN in water!

Water kills more people every year than fluoride ever will.

[Chef Eric]

38. If you think water is harmful, then don't drink it. nt

[jberryhill]

39. The illiteracy rate at DU never ceases to amaze me

"Water is the strong stuff - it carries whales and ships.
But water is the wrong stuff - don't let it get past your lips.
It rusts your boots and wets your suits, puts aches in all your bones,
Dilute the stuff with whiskey, aye, or leave it well alone."

[DeSwiss]

13. Exactly. n/t

[HuckleB]

41. No, it's not.

Learn how science works. Then get back to us.

[Quantess]

11. Don't we get enough fluoride from toothpaste and mouthwash?

I am neutral about the fluoridated-water issue, and I really don't know. But isn't fluoride one of those "a little goes a long way" things?

[JackRiddler]

26. Obviously, but the aluminum industry needs a way...

to dump their waste product without having to pay for its safe disposal. In fact, they are getting paid for it! This is even better than mere externalization of their costs. They've turned their pollution into a profit center.

[waddirum]

12. water fluoridation is an inefficient mechanism for delivering fluoride to children's teeth

What percent of city water supplies are actually consumed orally? It has to be a fraction of a percent, based on everything else that uses municipal water supplies -- residential, commericial, and industrial. All the rest of that fluoride additive is flushed down the toilet, bathtub, sink, boiler drain, etc.

If children require fluoride, it should be given in the form of a rinse that they can spit out. Fluoridating water seems to me a very inefficient way to meet the goal of reducing childhood cavities.

Now consider that the aerosols from your shower head contain the dissolved fluoride, which can be breathed in pretty deeply. We are delivering fluoride to our entire bodies (internal and external), not just our mouths. Does this really make sense.

But any questioning of the legitimacy of water fluoridation gets an automatic reference to Dr. Strangelove or to the John Birch Society.

(For the record, I drink city water directly from the tap and do indeed take showers)

[JackRiddler]

24. It's a great way to deliver it to their blood and bones, though.

[DeSwiss]

37. And the pineal gland.

[dipsydoodle]

15. Its banned in 98% of Europe

England is the main exception. Considered to contribute to serious health problems.

[GliderGuider]

20. A list of countries that don't fluoridate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_controversy

Water fluoridation is used in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and Australia, and a handful of other countries. The following nations previously fluoridated their water, but stopped the practice, with the years when water fluoridation started and stopped in parentheses:

Federal Republic of Germany (1952–1971)
Sweden (1952–1971)
Netherlands (1953–1976)
Czechoslovakia (1955–1990)
German Democratic Republic (1959–1990)
Soviet Union (1960–1990)
Finland (1959–1993)
Japan (1952–1972)

Here is a more thorough look at countries that do and don't fluoridate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation_by_country

Fluoridation is by no means universally accepted.

[JackRiddler]

25. This shows how dishonest (or deluded) the fluoridation advocates are.

The majority of the developed world does not fluoridate their water, and despite this all of these countries have seen enormous improvements in dental health through the decades. (Many of them have better dental health indicators than the US, of course.) It's correctly seen as a forced medication of the entire population, as well as a self-evident health hazard. But in the United States it's liberals who have been successfully brainwashed into thinking that the only people who object to the practice are right-wing and crazy. Very typically for Americans, they are either ignorant of the rest of the world, or prefer to ignore it, and make a virtue of their ignorance. The liberal reaction to the anyone even mentioning fluoridation as a problem reveals an extreme provincialism masquerading as enlightenment rationalism. That's not what liberals should be about.

[Quantess]

27. I currently am residing in one of those countries that stopped fluoridating their water.

Not that it has anything to do with anything, but the tap water here tastes great, too..

[HuckleB]

42. Fluoride does not affect the flavor of the water.

[Xithras]

30. My home water filtration system removes chlorine and flouride

My cities investment in flouridated water is, literally, money down the toilet for me. Flouride washes my car, waters my lawn, and flushes my toilet, but it doesn't enter my drinking water.

[Red1]

31. Wichita Kansas

Voted it down a few months ago...causes cancer...your spine to curve and invites the devil into your home...oh Lordy...

[Dash87]

32. You go to turn the shower handle, but it just

Summons a hell demon instead. It's been known to happen with fluoridation.

Fluoridation also causes Liberalism and stuff.

[Mr.Bill]

33. Fluoride or not,

the tap water there hasn't been fit to drink in decades.

[jsr]

34. Had no idea they didn't have fluoride

[Ter]

35. Expect a sharp rise in autism

n/t