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UK Against Fluoridation

Monday, February 06, 2012

USA - New Jersey again considers fluoridating drinking water

New Jersey again considers fluoridating drinking water
Posted: Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:22 pm | Updated: 7:56 pm, Sun Feb 5, 2012.
New Jersey again considers fluoridating drinking water By LEE PROCIDA Staff Writer pressofAtlanticCity.com | 0 comments
Nearly 70 years after the first U.S. cities started adding fluoride to drinking water, the New Jersey Legislature is once again considering a law to make it mandatory in the state.
The “New Jersey Public Water Supply Fluoridation Act” has been proposed for years, but it has been opposed for just as long by environmentalists, water utilities and other groups.
The goal of the bill would be to add a safe amount of fluoride to all public water supplies that lack the naturally occurring compound in order to promote dental health.
Currently, only 14 percent of people in New Jersey have access to fluoridated water — the second-lowest percentage in the country — compared with 64 percent nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr., D-Burlington, is both a medical doctor and primary sponsor of the bill. The bill was not voted on by either house in the last legislative session and was reintroduced in January.
Atlantic City and Egg Harbor City have the only water utilities that add fluoride to their water in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and southern Ocean Counties. Buena Borough and a small section of Stow Creek Township also have natural levels of fluoride in their water supplies.
That is a public health issue, advocates say, which can easily be fixed.
“It is absolutely the least expensive, most effective way to prevent dental disease,” said Jim Schulz, director of government affairs for the New Jersey Dental Association.
But adding the compound has been controversial for a number of reasons. Environmentalists are concerned about contaminants in low-grade fluoride, utilities are concerned about the costs and some people believe it should be their own choice.
“There are numerous other means for those who choose to use fluoride for dental hygiene to do so without imposing it on those who care not to make the same choice,” said Karen Alexander, president and CEO of the New Jersey Utilities Association, in a letter to Conaway.
It is true that fluoride has become much more common in a variety of products like toothpaste and mouthwash since the first municipal water supply in the U.S. was fluoridated in 1945.
Last year, the CDC revised down its recommended level of fluoride in drinking water, partly because of its prevalence elsewhere in society, and because excessive fluoride can damage tooth enamel.
At the same time, the CDC considers fluoridating water supplies one of the great public health achievements of the 20th Century. Numerous studies have found that water fluoridation dramatically increases the dental health of a population over time by preventing tooth decay.
New Jersey does not necessarily rank at the bottom of the country in dental health because of its limited access to fluoridated water, but it has been criticized on a number of other counts as well.
Last year, The Pew Children’s Dental Campaign gave New Jersey an “F” grade for meeting only two out of eight policy benchmarks it considers important for the oral health of children in each state. New Jersey failed in water fluoridation, access to care and several other categories.
Environmentalists do not necessarily oppose flouridation, but are concerned with the type of fluoride water utilities use. Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he would like the law to include requirements for high-grade fluoride to make sure no contaminants are present.
“The Legislature should be taking chemicals out of our drinking water, not adding chemicals,” he said......

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