Alaska passes ordinance to end its water fluoridation program

Friday, October 28, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: Alaska, water fluoridation, health news

(NaturalNews) For 44 years, the town of Palmer, Ak., has been fluoridating its water supply, which is sourced from natural wells in the area. But thanks to concerted public outcry and growing momentum in Alaska and elsewhere to end the practice, the Palmer City Council has officially passed an ordinance repealing the town's water fluoridation mandate.

Both Fairbanks and Juneau, which represent the second and third most populous cities in Alaska, respectively, recently decided to end their water fluoridation programs after some members of special fluoride task forces found water fluoridation to be a questionable and unsubstantiated "public health" protocol. But what really pushed the decision over the edge in both cases was the surge of public opposition.

Following in these two cities footsteps, Palmer city officials recently decided to go the same route by heeding petitions from the public against the addition of fluoride in water as well. And by doing so, the town will now save thousands of dollars a year in material, labor, and maintenance costs associated with dripping the toxic chemical into the water supply.

"In response to concerns about the risks of fluoride in the Palmer public water supply, the City Council directed the administration to investigate the issue and in response to the investigation, it has determined that an ordinance be introduced ending the addition of fluoride to the public water supply," says the summary statement on the passage of the ordinance.

"The water fluoridation concerns include moral, ethical, safety, and efficacy aspects of adding fluoride to the public water supplies."

The report cites the fact that 99 percent of western continental Europe, as well as most of the rest of the world, has either ended or long-rejected water fluoridation for some of the very same reasons. Only five percent of the world's population, after all, is exposed to artificially fluoridated water -- and 50 percent of such people live in North America, and primarily in the US.

Other cities and counties that have recently ended their water fluoridation programs include Pinellas County, Fla. (Tampa area), College Station, Tex., Slave Lake, Alberta, Can., Hohenwald, Tenn., Pottstown, Penn., and Spring Hill, Tenn. (http://www.fluoridealert.org/communities.asp...).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.cityofpalmer.org/vertical/Sites/%...