Woman: Remove fluoride from city water
City worker asks City Council to reconsider using fluoride additive to Woonsocket’s drinking water
WOONSOCKET – A leader of the city’s largest employees union made a plea to the City Council recently that was as impassioned as it was unexpected: rid the public water system of fluoride.
Robin Salome dismissed the commonly accepted belief that fluoride prevents tooth decay as propaganda and called the widely used chemical additive to drinking water a pollutant that carries substantial health risks.
Vice president of Local 670 of Council 94/AFLCIO/ AFSCME, Salome said the type of fluoride used by the Water Department is particularly questionable. She said the water department uses sodium silicofluoride, which is a byproduct of fertilizer manufacturing. She said the city spends more than $10,000 a year on a brand that originates in China, where supplies are known to have tested positive for radiation, arsenic and lead.
“This is a protected pollutant that’s being ingested and absorbed by residents,” said Salome. “They are drinking it. They are eating it. They are cooking with it…they shower with it, they are watering their vegetable gardens with it.”
Salome said she addressed the issue with the council because – she’s done the research – it’s the only government body in the city with the power to discontinue the longstanding practice of fluoridating processed drinking water.
The local attack on fluoride seemed to come out of the blue, but there’s been an ongoing, global debate over the risks versus the rewards of fluoridating water for many years.
Salome’s 20-minute speech drew mixed reactions from city officials.
Public Works Director Steve D’Agostino said the fluoridation of water isn’t mandatory, but the state Department of Health endorses the practice everywhere, including Woonsocket. He said DOH has drafted a letter affirming its position and he intends to distribute copies to members of the city council.
“The Department of Health supports the practice and has for many years, especially in communities
like this where the poor often have inadequate access to dental care,” said D’Agostino.
At least one member of the council thinks Salome’s concerns are worth exploring.
“She made an impression on me,” said Council President Dan Gendron. “I know it was a one-sided opinion but it does bear looking into. I’ve done a little bit of looking into stuff online and there are people who question the value and the risk. I think it’s something I will look into further.’
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, the vast majority of the state’s residents drink water in which fluoride, a naturally occurring substance, is artificially boosted with chemical additives.
The largest water authorities in the state, including the Providence Water Supply Board, the Newport Water Department, the Kent County Water Authority and the Newport Water Department, all provide customers with fluoridated water, according to the CDC.
But the practice is by no means universal. Many municipal water authorities in the state do not add fluoride to drinking water, and all of Washington County, which is largely served by a hodgepodge of smaller municipal authorities and private concerns, is virtually fluoride-free.
“It’s just something that’s never been done,” said Tiverton Public Works Director Michael Gray.
Gray, who’s been overseeing the Tiverton Water Department for about a decade, says he pretty sure customers know they’re getting water that doesn’t contain added fluoride, and it doesn’t seem to be an issue for them. “They pay attention down here, they know, they understand,” he says.
Worcester may be the leading exception to the fluoridation practices observed in most urban areas in the region. The Central Massachusetts city about 40 miles north of the state line is one of the few Bay State communities that remains non-fluoridated, and Worcester’s residents seem to want it that way. Voters have rejected ballot questions to fluoridate the public water supply four times since 1963 – most recently in 2001.
Though there’s wide divergence of opinion on the benefits of fluoridation, many highly revered health organizations endorse the practice, including the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Public Health Service and the World Health Organization.
“The American Dental Association continues to endorse fluoridation of community water supplies as safe and effective for preventing tooth decay,” the organization’s official position paper says. “This support has been the Association’s position since the policy was first adopted in 1950. The ADA’s policies regarding community water fluoridation are based on the overwhelming weight of peer-reviewed, credible scientific evidence.”
Reached for comment after the meeting, Salome says she’s spent a good deal of time researching the health risks associated with fluoride. She says most dentists support the use of fluoride because “that’s what they’re taught to say.”
Anyone who looks closely at the issue will come to the conclusion that the muchtouted health benefits of fluoride are basically little more than a myth, elevated to conventional wisdom in the same way that cigarette hucksters once pitched tobacco as a health tonic, she says.
Sodium silicofluoride actually turns up as an ingredient in myriad products besides water, including laundry soap, insecticide and rat poison, according to Salome, and it’s been linked to bone cancer, regressive cognitive development and neurological disorders.
A resident of Glocester, Salome is employed as the senior assistant at Woonsocket Harris Library and has served as vice president of the Local 670 for about two years. Salome said she has wanted to petition the council to end fluoridation for some time, partly because she is concerned about union members who handle the substance at the water department in bulk, but the Oct. 4 meeting in Harris Hall was her first chance after getting settled as vice president.
“The reason I went to the council is they are the deciding board,” she said. “It’s their decision whether to put this in the water or not.”
Follow Russ Olivo on Twitter @russolivo