USA - Fluoride to be added to Carlsbad's water

Fluoride to be added to Carlsbad's water
By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer
CARLSBAD ---- Customers of the Carlsbad Municipal Water District can expect to receive postcards by the end of August notifying them that fluoride will be added to the city's water supply starting Oct. 1.
People who live in southern Carlsbad and obtain their water from the city's two other water districts ---- Olivenhain and Vallecitos ---- can expect similar notifications.
It's the first stage of a publicity campaign across Southern California, city water operations Superintendent Steve Plyler told the Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday night.
San Diego County is one of the latecomers to the fluoridation movement, he added. A chemical compound, fluoride has been added to toothpaste as well as to drinking water for decades in an effort to improve dental health.
Recent state legislation and new grant funding have provided the push for San Diego to join other parts of the country, Plyler added. Metropolitan Water District ---- Southern California's main water provider ---- is orchestrating the project in conjunction with the regional San Diego County Water Authority.
"It's about time," Councilman Mark Packard, a local dentist, declared as Plyler's fluoride presentation ended. "It will be a plus for us now to tell our patients the water is fluoridated."
Dentists have long argued that the substance can help prevent tooth decay and reduce the risk of cavities. But while many health care professionals support the fluoridation movement, it has been controversial in recent years.
Escondido residents waged a four-year court battle in an effort to keep fluoride out their water supply. In their court case, which ultimately was unsuccessful, they argued that the substance might contain lead and arsenic at levels that could cause cancer.
Other fluoride opponents have argued that the nation's fluoridation effort is a plot by chemical companies to handily dispose of one of their unwanted production byproducts.
Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis said Tuesday that the San Diego County Water Authority has heard from many folks who oppose fluoridation.
"We've had some speakers that were very convincing that this is a bad thing," said Lewis, who sits on the water authority's board.
However, Carlsbad council members had no opposition to the fluoridation plans Tuesday. Most of their questions centered on what might happen if a proposed desalination plant is built in town. Plans for that plant, which would turn sea water into drinking water, are slated to go before the state Coastal Commission later this year.
Plyler said it would be "doable" to put fluoride into the drinking water that comes from the proposed desalination plant, but said the details still need to be worked out.