Portland commissioners may move for early vote on fluoridation
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland City Council will try to finish their agenda for the year today and one of the first items on the list is putting water fluoridation on the ballot earlier than planned.
Councilors unanimously voted to add fluoride to Portland’s water to protect our teeth but protesters gathered enough signatures to put it on the 2014 ballot.
Now, Commissioner Randy Leonard says a vote on the measure can't wait that long and the city council may vote Thursday to put it on the May 2013 ballot.
The issue of water fluoridation has been a contentious one for the city. Commissioner Nick Fish said he couldn't remember an issue that brought out so much passion on both sides.
A recent poll showed voters almost evenly split on the issue.
Fish, who co-sponsored the plan, has said more than 200 million Americans drink water with added fluoride, and it doesn't appear to have caused great harm.
Most mainstream health organizations, such as the American Medical Association and American Dental Association, endorse it as safe.
In September, police had to remove unruly protesters for yelling, swearing, hissing and disrupting a vote by the Portland City Council, which unanimously approved adding fluoride to the city's drinking water.
City councilors argued it's Portland's responsibility to protect childrens' health. Medical experts say it's a safe and effective way to keep teeth healthy.
"Reasonable people can disagree, but the science is on the side of fluoridation," said Mayor Sam Adams.
But opponents dispute whether fluoride is safe and said adding the mineral to drinking water violates a person's right to consent to medication.
They also said council members rushed into action without a public vote. Now, it appears that vote could be moved up.
Portland does NOT need this crap in the water supply, this stuff affects the body intestines, this crap should be banned outright, teach your kids to brush their teeth the money spent on this crap can be better used in other more needed places.Â
Drink Up: Flouride Spill Eats Hole in Concrete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXPjaZbaTO4&feature=player_embeddedÂ
Drink up and sing: "I have become comfortably dumb".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iC3Q1FeU9Nk&list=UU7TvL4GlQyMBLlUsTrN_C4QÂ
Somebody wants to make a lot of money on Fluroride. We don't want it.
Medication/poisoning  against our will. Just say NO to fluoridating the water.
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"Fluoride jeopardizes health even at low levels deliberately added to public water supplies. It poses risks for thyroid patients, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers, and others."
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This is one summary of the recent report from a blue-ribbon scientific panel of the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council. NAS panel member Robert Isaacson, a distinguished professor of neurobehavioral science at the State University of New York in Binghamton, said in the Portland Tribune (3/29/06) that the possible effects on the endocrine system and hormones from water fluoridation are "something I wouldn't want to happen to me" The twelve-member NRC fluoride Committee unanimously decided that current maximum allowable fluoride levels must be lowered.
So now, it is not just Richard and Karilee Shames and the so-called "small group of anti-fluoridationists" who are trying to warn people about fluoride's effect on the thyroid gland, as well as other body systems. Now, it's some of the top-credentialled people in the country. -  About.com Thyroid DiseaseÂ
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How nice of you to pull information from just that one particular report. How about we move forward a year and I pull some information released in 2007?
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The 2007 NRC Report on Earth Materials and Health: Research Priorities for Earth Sciences and Public Health*
In this report, the NRC considered research issues related to the medical geology field on connections between earth science and public health, addressing both positive and negative societal impacts. This report identified fluoride as a mineral that can positively influence human health, and although earlier NRC reports were not conclusive in their opinions, this report concluded that fluoride was considered to be an element essential for human life based on its role in cellular functions involving metabolic or biochemical processes. The report further stated that fluoride in drinking water has two beneficial effects: preventing tooth decay (dental caries) and contributing to bone mineralization and bone matrix integrity.
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...So, in conclusion.. pull your head out of the sand. The lengths this town goes to in order to prove how ignorant it is absolutely amazes me sometimes.
Just because it is physically POSSIBLE to add something to water - even if it is "safe" (which is arguable) - that doesn't mean you HAVE to do it..! Â Â Let people decide for themselves whether or not they want fluoride in their water; if they do, they can get bottled water with it in there, or toothpaste, mouthwash...probably other stuff, too. Â If the city wants to provide it for those who allegedly can't afford it, but want to have it, they can give out tablets or toothpaste or whatever to those people. Â (Good lord, if the gov't is going to give them cell phones on top of everything else already provided, fluoride tablets shouldn't be that big a deal.)
Portland, you really need to elect some people in your city gov't who aren't so totally dedicated to running / interfering in everyone's personal lives... Next, these people are going to be telling you how many spoonfuls of cereal and how many sips of coffee you can have for breakfast each morning, along with what brands of them you can buy..! Â Â
 @margay1 Or maybe they could hand out prepaid cards for purchase of fluoridated water for those who apply and qualify.
What a bunch of idiots we have in City hall always pushing crap down peoples throats..It all comes from the payoffs from the fluoride people pushing their toxic crap. When I was growing up fluoride was used as a rat poison oh how nice. People think next time before you vote..........Get informed about fluoride Google it.......There are things they do not want you to know about it.......Are you OK with this going in our good water?
Perhaps they are in a hurry to not get cavities?
They need to do something about the urine in the water first. I hear it is at a record high!
You elected em Portland. Either live with the consequences or remove them from office. You didn't have the guts to remove a criminal, Sam Adams. You won't have the guys to remove these incompetents either.
They know that it isn't going to pass, and they want us to become zombified earlier than they first thought. Meeting in secret and then busting this out all of the sudden sure sounds fishy to me! Go fluoridite yourselves but don't bring everyone down with you.
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On a side note: I would like to see the city council members drink fluoride water! They have some at walgreens, rite-aid, and walmart, there are whole shelves of the stuff because no one wants it!
I like when they bring up - "actual risks of fluoridation which are minor and largely cosmetic" What other chemical do you eat everyday changes your body? and do you think fluoride only changes the teeth? just like aspirin only goes to your head to fix headaches.
It looks like fluoridation causes foaming at the mouth.
I think you mean lack of fluoridation.
I bet you these liberal hypocrites don't protest salt with iodine added EXACTLY for the same reason: Â it's a medical thing to improve the health of millions, something attributed to PROGRESS, something the Left hates.
@archon312 At least with salt you have the option of not purchasing it containing Iodine. Oh...and it's NOT a medical thing....not when you can purchase all oral care items to contain fluoride. Teach the kids to brush and not consume so much pop. I've got great teeth without fluoride...I still have all my teeth...and do not want it in my water. Period.
You know what else people can purchase? Food, housing and medical care. Know what? Some people don't or can't do that, so the government stepped in. That's what happens when the people can't or won't do unto themselves.
 @JGalt I don't see the government forcing food down anyone's throats or forcing medical care on them. It's fine if the government provides people with the option, when it's compulsory it's a little bit different.
That's an asinine comment. The city does not provide us with salt and there are many options out there other than iodized salt. I haven't bought iodized salt in over a decade. I get my fluoride just fine in my toothpaste. If the city is so concerned they should just pass out fluoridated toothpaste to anyone who wants it. Keep in mind, less than 1% of our water supply gets ingested, so how does the fluoride react to with everything else it comes in contact with?
The city provides many other things, including forms of welfare. Why shouldn't this be included? Cite real information, please, not just some nutjob rhetoric. As for your last sentence - you do know that fluoride is also naturally occurring, right?
I'd bet that water causes more deaths and injuries than all 5 of those items combined. I'm not dismissing 'all reasons' as nutjob rhetoric, I'm dismissing the nutjob rhetoric as real reasons. If you can't understand the difference..
 @JGalt Also naturally occurring is arsenic, lead, mercury, uranium, and a whole lot of other elements I don't want the city to put into the water my family drinks. Many oppose fluoridation for specific environmental, medical, or scientific reasons - I can't list it all here, but look it up. If you want to dismiss all reasons as "nutjob rhetoric," you are less than rational and objective.
 @archon312 I didn't think conservatives considered themselves "progressive", or cared even a little bit about other people's health.Â
"Fish, who co-sponsored the plan, has said more than 200 million Americans drink water with added fluoride, and it doesn't appear to have caused great harm." I dont want to be part of your experiment, I already was once in the military when they forced us to take the anthrax "vaccination"
Vote it down now, vote it down later, who cares, I would just like to see it voted down.
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Of course if it isnât, the city is likely to see class action suits from several other bull run users who will be forced to use fluoride who may not want to.
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Won't THAT be nice?
@Repoman That will be interesting to hear from the cities who buy Bull Run water from Portland.