By Marianne Lincoln

OPINION

Parkland Light and Water was the lead name on the lawsuit to prevent the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department from mandating fluoridated water across the county in 2002. When the matter was headed to the Washington State Supreme Court, they balked and signed the agreement to fluoridate the water. It cost their rate payers over $250,000 to buy the equipment and set up the system to do this. The utility even polled its members and 51% were against the fluoridation.

The agreement with the health department expired in March 2013 and the utility voted June 20 to end fluoridation. The reason? The manager, Mark Johnson, was quoted in the News Tribune saying it was not cost effective. He said they spent about $70,000 each year on fluoridation.

Mary Jennings, dental director for Parkland’s Lindquist Dental Clinic for Children was on the pro-fluoridation side before the public even knew about the health department mandate in 2002. She is quoted in the Tribune article multiple times because she is a die-hard pusher of water fluoridation.

I, on the other hand, am a die-hard opponent and unapologetic. I have a degree in chemistry. I worked for several water utilities and labs in my past. But more than that, I am one of the individuals that has health concerns with fluoride in the water. They will never convince me because I know my own personal body chemistry. People like Mary Jennings push this chemical, which is often delivered unaltered from phosphate fertilizer plants with untested contaminants, using sorrowful stories of children with bad dental care. They show ugly mouths and tell us this will all go away with this in our water. Well, it’s simply not true. Better nutrition and actual dental services will help make it go away. I am an advocate for spending that money getting kids dental treatment with hygienists and real dentists, not some additive in the water that harms other people.

I have no tinfoil hat and my helicopter was an orange Bell not black. Don’t ever try to start that Strangelove crap with me. I get sick from it in the water. I have been forced to carry water to work in Tacoma and Seattle. I have a 5 gallon water thermos for my automobile because I cannot trust the water in cities. That’s what it has done for me. And yes, I resent it. But I know I am healthier without it and very likely many others are as well. I have read many studies on the harm. I had to organize 1031 pages of them for the courts.

So how about those statistics about how great the teeth of Parkland children became in the past 10 years? The only statistics I have seen are the increases in poverty in the Parkland area over the past 10 years. I am certain there was even less dental care and an unfortunate lack of real improvement for those children.

So bravo to the Parkland Light and Water directors for stopping a non-effective and expensive program. I hope to hear you will make a regular donation to a fund to help Franklin Pierce’s poor youth to see dental hygienists. That was a program discussed with the health department and water companies after the State Supreme Court stopped their mandate. Here is a link to the brochure for the ABCD program (Access to Baby and Child Dentistry) for kids ages 0 to 6. This is an excellent resource! The health department also has this link for access to low cost dental insurance.

You see, we all care about children’s dental health, some of us just want to see it done the best way possible for the individuals that need to be served. That’s why we live in a democracy, so we can have choices.

Now go brush your teeth and do yourself a favor, each less sugar and bad carbs.