By Marianne Lincoln

This is the fourth in a series of articles about the Pierce County Oral Health Summit.

Break out sessions for the PCOHS

• Water Quality in Pierce County
• Comprehensive Community Oral Health Plan (CCHOP) covered in second segment
• Pregnancy and Oral health
• 5210 Healthy Lifestyles

Brad Harp, hydrologist for the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, presented a session on Water Quality in Pierce County. He pointed out that in the over 22 years he has studied well water in Pierce County, there has been no known instance of well water illness in Pierce County.

He noted that there are areas that have high arsenic in the water, which are in the vicinity of Kapowsin and Eatonville. There are also areas that have issues with sea water intrusion around the Longbranch peninsula and Gig Harbor areas. Every place you take surface water out there is a unique chemical makeup.

Conditions that can cause issues with water are salty water causing corrosion in pipes and manganese and iron will giving the water a brown color and leaving yellow stains on the things it comes in contact with including appliances, tiles and clothing.

Mr. Harp showed the various places in a water system that water is tested. All water companies are required to provide a fact sheet on the quality of their water to customers once a year. Sometimes these are sent to the owners of a property, but not the renters, depending on who pays the water bill. If you do not receive this information, contact your water company to receive one.

Many people are not aware whether their local water is fluoridated. Harp showed a map of the areas in Pierce County that have fluoridated water and the areas that do not have fluoridation, but contract with Tacoma Water when their usage is high and therefore have fluoridated water at those occasional times.

Since fluoridated water is contra-indicated for babies under 6 months, it is important to know if your water is fluoridated. 44% of the water systems in Pierce County are fluoridated. Fluoride cannot be removed with filtration systems. Removal of fluoride requires reverse osmosis or distillation equipment which is significantly more expensive. There is a well on 99^th Street in Midland that provides Tacoma Water that is chlorinated, but not fluoridated for those with low incomes seeking some un-fluoridated water.

There are about 30,000 wells in Pierce County, most of which do not have water treated in any fashion.

If you want to know if your water system is fluoridated, you can check here.

Federal EPA data on tap water  (PDF file)

5210 Healthy Lifestyles

Although this writer did not attend this seminar, here’s a great kids fact sheet from Hawaii.

5 – fruits, roots and vegetables (eat healthy)
2 – hours of screen time (watch less)
1 – hour of physical activity (play more)
0 – sugary drinks (cut down on sugar)

 Pregnancy and Oral Health

This session was on working with mothers to help babies have a better start. During pregnancy, mothers on assistance programs can get Medicaid dental care. Two months after their babies are delivered, this coverage ends.