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AUGUST 23, 12:11 EDT Fluoridation Opposed in Utah
By C.G. WALLACE
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Dr. Michael Fitzgerald came to Utah 20 years ago to save the state's teeth. ``That's when the other dentists told me you'd get the Nobel Prize if you can get fluoridation in Utah,'' says Fitzgerald, dental director for the state Department of Health. Two decades into his job, Fitzgerald isn't even close to winning that Nobel. In an age when more than half the nation's drinking water is fluoridated, only about 3 percent of Utah residents drink water treated with the cavity-resisting mineral. Only Nevada, at 2 percent, is less fluoridated.
Although children in conservative Utah have a high rate of tooth decay, a small but vocal minority sees fluoridation as an unwanted government intrusion that may threaten their health. While the Utah Legislature passed a law this year aimed at making it easier to place fluoridation on local election ballots, November's ballot remains bare of any such proposal. ``It appears that no one has the political courage to put it on the ballot,'' Fitzgerald said. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in food and water. It has been added to America's water supplies for 50 years at between 0.7 and 1.2 parts per million as a safe and cheap method of preventing tooth decay in children and adults. About 145 million people, or 62 percent of Americans, drink fluoridated water, according to a 1995 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fitzgerald said fluoride-treated water cuts childhood tooth decay by half. But in the West, fluoridation has had a rough time. Besides Nevada and Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, California and Hawaii rank among the bottom 11 states for percentage of water supplies treated with fluoride. Oddly, a majority in Utah would prefer to drink fluoridated water. A Deseret News survey this spring found 65 percent of those polled favored fluoridation and only 20 percent were opposed. But that minority has long been a fiercely vocal one. From the 1950s through the 1970s, anti-fluoride rhetoric was often tied to the Cold War, opponents labeling it a Communist plot to turn Americans into ``walking zombies.'' Today, the issue is more often framed as one of personal freedom vs. government intrusion. ``These are just common folks who believe in liberty, freedom and the right to choose,'' says Gayle Ruzika, president of the ultraconservative and influential Utah Eagle Forum. ``We don't use the water supply for medication.'' ``It's the freedom, the loss of freedom, and that they think we're dumbbells that just take what they give us,'' says Norma Sommer, an anti-fluoride crusader for more than 20 years who doesn't ``give a hoot'' that anyone might think her views radical. Sommer claims she has research proving fluoride — she calls it ``rat poison'' — causes brain and chromosomal damage as well as miscarriages. She thinks it may even be behind the spread of AIDS, pointing out San Francisco's water supply is heavily fluoridated. ``I go with the feeling first, the feeling that something's not right here. I don't listen to scientists, I listen to reason,'' Sommer says. A Salt Lake dentist, Dr. Tony Tidwell, said anti-fluoride groups spout half-truths and feed on people's fears. ``It's a very conservative state. People see a conspiracy in everything. They don't want to be told what to do, even if it's good for them,'' he said. ``If it was as bad as they say, people would be dropping like flies.'' The American Dental Association says there has never been a ``single valid, peer-reviewed laboratory, clinical or epidemiological study that showed drinking water with fluoride at optimal levels caused cancer, heart disease, or any of the other multitude of disease proclaimed by very small groups of antifluoridationists to be caused by fluoridation.'' Tidwell said the lack of fluoride-treated water is evident with just one peek inside a patient's mouth. ``I can tell the difference between the person who grew up in Utah and those who grew up someplace else,'' he said. Fluoride was added to the water in two Utah towns, Helper and Brigham City, decades ago. And military installations, such as Dugway Proving Ground and Hill Air Force Base, are required by law to add fluoride to their water supplies. But they are the exceptions. Last winter, the Utah Legislature passed a law making it possible for local elected officials overseeing public water supplies to put fluoridation on the ballot without a petition. Officials of Salt Lake and Davis counties considered adding fluoride to their ballots in November but backed off, much to the surprise of Lewis Garrett, director of family health services for the Salt Lake City-County Health Department. ``It shocked me, actually. They were just being asked to let the people vote on it,'' Garrett said. For now, those for and against adding fluoride to drinking water say they will concentrate their efforts on educating the public. As for Fitzgerald, his tempered optimism for widespread passage of fluoride ballot measures is decidedly long-term. ``Yes, I think it will (happen),'' he says. ``But maybe not in my lifetime.'' |
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1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
