Push to ban fluoride in public water ‘spread by keyboards’ to another NC county

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Union County joined at least two other local governments when it decided last month not to add fluoride to a newly constructed water plant.

County commissioners there voted 3-2 last month to not to add fluoride to its Yadkin River Water Treatment plant, which serves about one-third of the county’s population. Nearly two-thirds of the county’s water customers are in the Catawba River Basin, and they’re served by the Lancaster Water and Sewer District.

The decision came after concerns expressed by residents about “medical freedom” and information found on corners of the internet that fluoride was uniquely dangerous despite widely touted oral health benefits. A CDC database shows two western North Carolina towns also do not add fluoride to water.

”The argument is if this board, the Union County Board of Commissioners, has the authority to put a medicine or a medical substance in our water without the consent of the residents,” Vice Chair Brian Helms said.

Those arguments have now spread to Stanly County.

Harold Schumacher, a Union County resident who has made the rounds at board meetings to speak out against fluoride in public water supplies, claimed without evidence that fluoride was just as dangerous as arsenic.

“I don’t think any chemist or toxicologist would call these safe,” Schumacher said during a Stanly County Board of Commissioners meeting earlier this month, where he alleged a few drops of fluoride presented similar life-threatening possibilities as arsenic. “These are very dangerous materials.”

The American Dental Association notes on its website that fluoride — along with life-giving substances including salt, iron and oxygen — can be toxic in large doses. However, the recommended federal amount is 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.

In the recommended amounts, fluoride in water decreases cavities or tooth decay by about 25%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported in 2018 that 73% of the U.S. population was served by water systems with adequate fluoride to protect teeth.

The CDC named fluoride one of the 10 “great public health achievements of the 20th century.” In addition to the American Dental Association, the CDC, World Health Organization, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have endorsed fluoridated water.

Fluoride removal in Stanly County?

Stanly County Commissioner Peter Asciutto says he was left perplexed from last week’s meeting about why fluoride would be considered a public health hazard.

He expressed fear that unverified online sources influenced people’s perspective.

“I don’t think it’s valid,” he told The Charlotte Observer of the complaints that suggest fluoride is harmful to teeth, could lead to cancers and is a danger to pregnant people. “These people aren’t listening to the science that has been properly vetted. If they don’t want to drink the water that has fluoride in it, they don’t have to.”

Asciutto compared the grievances against fluoride to “the same people” who routinely questioned the purpose of mask-wearing and vaccines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What concerns me is if someone told me five years ago we were going to have a conversation about getting fluoride out of the water, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he said. “Conspiracies are spread by keyboards now. You can find information on the internet that’s not been vetted.”

County commissioners have not decided whether to vote on removing fluoride from the water supply. The county gets its water from Albemarle and Norwood. Those municipalities would have to vote on the matter, too.

According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, fluoride has been part of the public water supply in the U.S. since the 1940s after studies found a reduction in tooth decay in children. After government officials added fluoride to water, the country saw a “dramatic decline in tooth decay over the past 75 years,” leading the CDC to name it one of the 10 “great public health achievements of the 20th century.”

North Carolina has supported fluoride in water since 1949, when Charlotte became the first city in the state to institute it. Since then, nearly 90% of the state’s residents drink from local water systems that feature fluoride, NCDHHS said.

Fluoride-free water could be costly

Dentists warn the removal of fluoride could result in adverse health impacts and create a possible financial burden for families.

Dr. Frank Courts, a Rocky Mount-based pediatric dentist, told the Observer continued fluoridation in water could save North Carolina residents $800 million in dental treatments a year. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services estimates on its website that residents save approximately $38 in treatment costs for tooth decay for every dollar spent on community water fluoridation.

“Fluoridation is the most cost-effective method of preventing tooth decay,” the NCDHHS website says. “It is also a very equitable method of disease prevention — all people benefit regardless of their incomes, educational levels, ages, or ability to get dental treatment.”

Courts also said access to fluoridated water is critical for underserved populations with limited means to receive regular dental care.

“The science has clearly shown over and over again that fluoride is safe,” he said.

Over the years, dozens of cities and states across the country have taken action to remove or limit fluoride in drinking water, according to the American Dental Association. This year, Kentucky lawmakers proposed legislation that would make fluoride optional in tap water. On Florida’s southwest coast, Collier County officials voted in February to stop adding fluoride to water systems based on the county’s Health Freedom Bill of Rights ordinance.

The NC town that ‘didn’t need it’

Western North Carolina’s Franklin is one of two North Carolina towns, along with Sparta, near the Virginia state line, that does not add fluoride to the water supply, according to a CDC database that tracks which areas are without fluoride.

Kyle Pocquette, who runs the local wastewater treatment plant in Franklin, said handling the chemical can be dangerous.

“Pretty much if you get a speck of fluoride on you at all, it will completely bleach you,” he told the Observer about being exposed to it without proper safeguards and protection in place. “It’s extremely hazardous.”

Public officials in the town located 203 miles west of Charlotte considered adding fluoride as far back as 2002, but a motion to move forward with a measure to do so did not pass a council vote, the Franklin Press news reported.

Pocquette said the town is comfortable with going sans fluoride because oral products such as toothpaste, mouthwash, and even certain brands of commercially sold water contain some level of it.

“There are so many other things that have fluoride in them that the town felt like it didn’t need it,” he said.

However, Courts and others in the dental and health community disagree that fluoride is prevalent outside water sources.

“Everyone doesn’t use fluoride in toothpaste or mouthwash,” said Courts. “Fluoride is an economical way for a person to get it from the water. It works for everyone, no matter what you do.”

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