Bellingham Ballot Measure

City of Bellingham Initiative No. 01-2005 The Bellingham Fluoride Initiative

It is about time Bellingham’s citizens receive the benefits of community water fluoridation!

Local families and respected health care professionals support Proposition 1 requiring the fluoridation of Bellingham’s water. Water fluoridation is safe, effective and will improve the health of everyone in the community.

Reputable national studies and more than 60 years of experience prove the safety of water fluoridation. It’s not even a close call. The experts, including the Centers for Disease Control, the American Medical Association, U.S. Public Health Service, the American Cancer Society and every Surgeon General in the last 40 years, agree that fluoride is safe.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) very carefully monitors the quality of our nation’s drinking water under the Clean Water Act. Independent scientific panels have reviewed fluoridation several times and have continually supported the safety and effectiveness of water fluoridation.

Community water fluoridation is proven effective. Hundreds of scientific studies have reached the same conclusion. Communities with fluoride have improved oral health. Fluoridation reduces tooth decay by up to 40 percent for everyone, with the poor, uninsured and elderly benefiting the most.

There is no better, more efficient way for a community to prevent oral disease across the economic and age spectrum. Spending four cents per month for each Bellingham water user for fluoridation will result in huge savings across the community. In dental expenses alone, families will save hundreds of dollars. When hospital emergency and operating room expenses and lost wages of parents and patients are considered, the savings from water fluoridation are truly significant. It’s time to prevent oral disease, rather than pay for expensive treatment.

Community water fluoridation is badly needed in Bellingham. Our children have some of the highest rates of tooth decay in the state. According to the January 2005 Smile Survey of Bellingham third graders, 60 percent had cavities and more than one in five had rampant decay (seven or more decayed teeth). More than one-third of Bellingham adults have lost a tooth from decay.

Oral disease affects the overall health of children and adults. But we can prevent this disease by adding fluoride to the water, which is proven to reduce cavities and improve overall health. Our children and adults deserve the same protection as the citizens in Lynden, Everett, Seattle and other Washington cities. More than 65 percent of Americans receive the health benefits of fluoridated water and our community deserves the same benefits.

The vocal extremists who oppose water fluoridation have concocted many false reasons to oppose water fluoridation. They use quotes taken out of context, unproven claims posing as science, innuendo, outdated studies and statements from so-called “experts.” Getting information from the Internet that has not been verified by a university, professional society or the government is not a reliable way to obtain the facts about fluoridation. Please turn first to http://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/waterfluoridation/faqs.

Local doctors, dentists and other health care professionals, including the Whatcom County Medical Society, Mt. Baker District Dental Society and Mt. Baker Dental Hygienists’ Society support fluoride. Ask your physician and dentist for their opinion.

It is time to do what’s right for the health of our community. Vote yes on Proposition 1. Find ways to support Proposition 1 at http://www. fluorideworks.org/bellingham. We have a responsibility to improve the health of everyone who lives in Bellingham by supporting fluoridation.

Statement prepared by:

1. The health risks of fluoride are significant. The most common ailment is dental and skeletal fluorosis.

•On August 5, 2005, 11 separate unions of scientists and engineers of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) called for a national moratorium on fluoridation of public water supplies.

•The EPA scientist statements alone should make anyone pause before fluoridating a water supply.

•“Well-nourished children drinking fluoridated water experienced a dental fluorosis rate of 25 percent, poorly nourished children experienced a fluorosis rate of 60 percent. Journal of the American Dental Association, 44:156165,1952.

•Is this what we want for Bellingham residents’ teeth?

•There are also the health risks of hip fractures in the elderly and bone cancer in young males that increase substantially in fluoridated cities as documented in a recent Harvard study.

•“Increasing the fluoride intake of the population without regard to established risk factors such as age, weight, kidney function, total water consumption and fluoride intake from other sources is hardly a health benefit. It is medical negligence.” —Dr. Debra Hopkins, DDS (Washington State Dentist)

•Consequently, Europe has now removed fluoride from their water supply and over 100 U.S. cities have rejected it.

2. Bellingham residents should reject paying for the $750,000 initial cost and $140,000 per year “fluoride tax.”

•These figures are derived from the city of Lakewood, Washington (population 60,000), a city slightly smaller than Bellingham, which recently rejected fluoridating their water supply. Thus “if the fluoridation measure passes,” (City Council member John) Watts said, “the council will have to approve increases to water rates.” —The Bellingham Herald (8/17/2005)

3. Choice of medication: The right to decide the medication one ingests is fundamental.

•Forcing medication on an entire population is morally and medically unethical. Medication decisions belong to individuals, not the government.

4. The proposed fluoride additive compound hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFS) does not occur in nature nor is it the pharmaceutical grade fluoride used in dental products.

•Hydrofluorosilicic acid, a waste by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, contains contaminants of lead, arsenic and cadmium, all with documented health risks.

•Hydrofluorosilicic acid has never been approved by either the EPA or the FDA.

5. Bellingham residents have already extensively considered and rejected the proposal to fluoridate the water supply in 1992 and 1997 after numerous public hearings.

•Bellingham city residents have already rejected fluoride via the Bellingham City Council on September 15, 1997, rejecting fluoridation in a bipartisan manner, by a vote of 6-1, enacting: Resolution No. 42-97 a resolution of the city of Bellingham recognizing the impropriety of the use of its public water system to dispense fluoride treatment to the general population.

•Undeterred, the fluoridation supporters, operating a campaign based in Seattle and El Segundo, California, have spent over $100,000 with paid signature gatherers to try to impose their will on Bellingham’s water supply.

6. Any benefits of fluoride occur when fluoride is applied topically, not ingested:

•The dental establishment now generally concedes that fluoride’s benefits are derived primarily from topical application. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, “[L]aboratory and epidemiologic research suggests that fluoride prevents dental caries predominately after eruption of the tooth into the mouth, and its actions primarily are topical for both adults and children.”

•For more information, see http://www.noforcedfluoride.org.

Statement prepared by: