Editorial

Fluoride bill's a waste of energy

The Portland Tribune, Apr 6, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (24 Reader comments)

Portlanders have made it clear they want their water to run pure – and that includes leaving out even potentially beneficial substances such as fluoride.

The Oregon Legislature, however, is considering taking away Portland’s right, and the rights of many other water providers in the state, to decide whether to add fluoride to drinking water. We think the legislation, House Bill 3099, is ill-advised – and not because we buy into the notion that fluoride is a communist plot.

Rather, the flaw with this proposal is that it takes away local control and dictates to Oregonians what they will put into their bodies. We believe such decisions are best made at the local level, and indeed household by household when possible.

Portland has spoken before

The advocates of this bill, including the House Committee on Health Care and the Oregon Dental Association, have noble intentions. They want the majority of Oregon’s children to join most of the rest of America’s children in consuming a trace amount of fluoride, which virtually any dentist will argue prevents tooth decay.

Tooth decay by itself is disfiguring and unhealthy, but it also is connected to many other illnesses, including heart disease. So it makes sense, dentists say, to require fluoridation as the cheapest way to inoculate the greatest number of people against this health threat.

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