Kennebunk-area voters decide to cease water fluoridation
Residents of seven towns in the district voted to stop treating drinking water with fluoride, 9,922 votes to 5,625 votes.
Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Wells, Ogunquit, Arundel and parts of Biddeford and York get their water from the district. Fluoride is commonly added to public water supplies across the country as a way to combat tooth decay.
“The Water District is pleased with the outcome of the fluoride referendum,” said district superintendent Norm Labbe, in a written statement.
“It’s evident that the voting public is now more informed about the subject than they were back in 2002, when fluoridation was voted in. The water district thanks the Campaign to Reconsider Water Fluoridation volunteers and in particular the voters for their knowledgeable decision to cease the addition of fluoride to out water,” Labbe added.
“We look forward to staying true to our mission of providing the highest quality of water at the lowest reasonable cost.”
A small group of residents under the banner of the Campaign to Reconsider Fluoride pushed the issue to a ballot referendum, concerned that the practice amounts to mass-medicating and over-fluoridation.
The water district started adding fluoride to water in 2004 as part of a 2002 referendum. Janice Hanson, a Kennebunk resident and chairman of the Campaign, has said fluoride is an unnecessary toxin that should not be ingested.
Health experts said that water fluoridation is a beneficial public health measure to prevent tooth decay, especially in children.
Joseph R. Kenneally, a dentist from Kennebunk, in an October Portland Press Herald op-ed said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, as well as numerous other professional medical associations support fluoridation, and estimated depriving district residents access to the treatment would lead to a resurgence of tooth decay.
The water district board and its superintendent “are not doctors or public health experts, and are not there to make judgment about the safety and efficacy of community water fluoridation,” Kenneally said in his editorial.
“It’s evident that the voting public is now more informed about the subject than they were back in 2002, when fluoridation was voted in.
ReplyDeleteWhen will Templeton voters be more informed?
When they start to listen and or read the information provided here.
Or do they not care about the children in Templeton?
Are the smarter people in Maine able to gather information or is it they are open minded enough to listen as the information is and has been provided in Templeton.
Fluoride is a poison. Fluoride was poison yesterday. Fluoride is poison today. Fluoride will be poison tomorrow, Thank you Mr. Smart for your keen observation that Templeton residents are not at the topof the totem pole when it comes to IQ. Because Templeton was one of the first towns to fluoridate their water supply and because fluoride has been shown to lower IQ in mata analysis studies from Harvard Public Health and because in many case three generations have been poisoned and had their brains junktified it is doubtful we will ever figure out the big lie that has been told to us by the profluoridation crowd. They say you can't fix stupid but there is hope that people who are new to town can lead the charge to rid our water supply of the carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting, bone altering poison. When in doubt get it out.
ReplyDelete