Poll: Voters split on fluoridation, but almost all want a vote on it
PORTLAND, Ore. - A new Survey USA poll commissioned by KATU News about putting fluoride in Portland's water supply revealed two clear trends: voters are pretty much evenly split on the issue and almost everyone wants to vote on it.
The Portland City Council voted Sept. 12 and unanimously approved fluoridating the water supply starting in March of 2014. That same day opponents filed for a citizen referendum to begin the process of bringing the matter to a public vote.
The earliest a public vote on the issue could take place is May of 2014, two months after fluoridation is scheduled to begin - unless a special election is called.
In the poll, those opposed to adding fluoride just barely topped those in favor 45 to 43 percent, with 12 percent still undecided. That result is well within the poll' s 4.1 percent margin of error.
However, when asked if voters or the Portland City Council should decide the issue, it was no contest: 79 percent wanted a public vote with only 18 percent backing city commissioners making the call. Only 3 percent said they were not sure. The margin for error for that question was 3.1 percent.
The survey results came from calls to 588 registered voters in Multnomah County.
- Hear more about the fluoridation debate this Sunday at 9 a.m. on Your Voice, Your Vote
The issue of putting fluoride in the Portland water supply has been one of the most divisive in many years, marked by raucous city council meetings attended by hundreds of people on both sides of the issue.
Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who backs adding fluoride, said "science is on the side of fluoridation."
Critics maintain that fluoridated water is unneeded, unwanted and may pose a health hazard.
Supporters claim research shows it's safe and Portland is the last big city in the nation to hold out on fluoridation which they say can help prevent tooth decay in children.
Commissioner Nick Fish, who co-sponsored the plan, said he couldn't remember an issue that brought out so much passion on both sides.
Commissioner Dan Saltzman issued a statement explaining his yes vote.
Historically, voters in Portland twice rejected fluoridation before approving it in 1978. But that plan was overturned before any fluoride was ever added to the water.
Fluoridation will be the topic this Sunday on KATU TV's Your Voice, Your Vote program. Tune in at 9 a.m. on KATU TV and KATU.com.
Yes, there are some studies that show Flouride to have a positive effect when it came to dental health. However, there are equally as many studies that have shown negative results (especially from long term exposure, and the negative results were ulitmately much MORE damaging to the body, then doing any good). Yes, so with Flouride you managed to avoid a few cavities over the years, while exposing your body, organs and even teeth in the end to worse damage (the trade off is not worth it).Â
CDC:Â http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/fact_sheets/cwf_qa.htm#17
EPA: http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/fluoride.cfm#seven
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Here is an idea, for those people who want Flouride soo bad, why doesn't the state of Oregon provide subsidized flouride those families. As a tax payer I would rather help out those who actually wanted it through social programs, then pay to have the whole system overhauled, and then not have a choice about what chemicals are in my water. My body and teeth are my own, and I should not be forced to consume Flouride because the government feels it "might" be beneficial. It seems that government money could be spent on something that would help out our State in much more effective ways, and not force unwanted/unnecessary chemicals on the citizens (schools, road/bridge maintenance, river clean up, housing projects).
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Thank you
I am not confused about Flouride, it should not be added.
As a liberal, I am embarrassed by the kooky left in this city.
I can bring you hours of evidence against Fluoride as well, against Agenda 21. I say no to this on all levels health, financially and more........................The city council and Sam Adams who said, opposers are just "emotional", perhaps show that Sam has had far too much Fluoride in his body and brain to say that...........to approve something this heinous [ A CRIME ] to medicate the population without knowledge nor consent is beyond reason it is insanity.
 @eyeontruth Somehow I think most would agree the Oregon Supreme Court trumps your opinion on what is legal.Â
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BAER v. CITY OF BEND
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(fluoridation) passes the test of reasonableness (it is) no more practicing medicine or dentistry or manufacturing, preparing, compounding or selling a drug, than a mother would be who furnishes her children a well-balanced diet
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But the liberty secured by the Constitution ..does not import an absolute right in each person to be ..wholly freed from restraint.
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There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good. Society based on the rule that each one is a law unto himself would soon be confronted with disorder and anarchy
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Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own regardless of the injury that may be done to others
 @Billy Budd  @eyeontruth dork.
http://www.actionpa.org/fluoride/countries.pdf
More information on which first-world countries refuse to force-medicate their citizens, and why.
THANKS THIS WAS VERY INFORMATIVE FOR ALL OF US...........KEEP SENDING MORE PERHAPS PEOPLE WILL WAKE UPÂ Â Â DENTISTS TO ME, ARE LIKE LAWYERS...............MONEY HUNGRY AND EVIL........................ASK YOURSELF WHY DENTAL IS NOT CONSIDERED IN MEDICAL INSURANCE AND IN ER TREATMENT ? AND WHY EVEN GOOD INSURANCE WILL COVER ABOUT $1,000-$1,500 A CALENDAR YR AND YET ONE TOOTH COULD COST YOU MORE THEN THAT...SO MUCH CAN BE PROVEN ABOUT ROOT CANALS AND WISEDOM TEETH AND THE LIES OF DENTAL CARE, WHEN THE SIMPLE TRUTH CAN BE SEEN IN THE TEETH OF INNOCENT PEOPLE IN COUNTRIES WHERE THEY HAVE NO DENTISTS, AND DO NOT USE DRUGS AND EAT AND DRINK JUNK ................BESIDES WHY WOULD A CITY ADD CHEMICALS TO WATER CLAIMING A "CONCERN FOR THE PEOPLE"/? WE HAVE NO JOBS, NO HOUSING, NO MEDICAL CARE, INCREASING OF OUR UTILITIES AND A SCHOOL SYSTEM THEY TURNED OVER TO THE FEDS..............ARE WE NUTS ? GET SOME SEA SALT AND PULLING OILS AND STOP EATING ASPARTME AND SUGARS AND NO ONE WILL HAVE PROBLEMS
Fluoride is banned in other countries because it doesn't 'fight cavities' and in fact destroys internal organs. Fluoride in the water?? ONLY IN AMERICA WHICH HAS THE WORST DENTAL HEALTH RATING OF ALL FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES! Logically it just doesn't add up.
It seems to me that a class action litigation should be filed against the government for forced medicating the public!
Just some food for thought.
 @Freedom1267Â
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As much as I hate the idea of floride in the water, this has been tried many, many times and failed every single one.
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http://AnInconvenientTooth.org/
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Portland, don't listen to me or bill bud. watch this.
we're going to pollute our water with a toxic waste over a hygiene issue. genius, why don't we add conditioner for stronger better hair and wax for your car. I'm sure more water is actually used to wash cars than brush teeth. seems logical. how about sun tan lotion and maybe something that will sedate the public so they will be easier to deal with. oh yeah that's right, fluoride is one of the main ingredients in prozac. that will be awesome!Â
 @stevie.t@usa.com I can only hope that uncommitted Portlanders will read posts like this and compare to those from those who support water fluoridation and with a clear mind decide who is advocating for the community's greater good
 @Billy Budd maybe I need a little fluoride/prozaac to calm me down so i can sound like you/Hal the computer from 2001.. Daisy, daisy, fluoride is good for you. why don't you like fluoride Dave? Just drink it Dave. daisy....................dais... e.
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hack!
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I can only hope that undecided Portlanders will see that the message is more important than the messenger.Â
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The many local, national and regional professional medical, dental and public health experts who testified at the Council's public hearing obviously carried the day with the City Council whose only goal was the community's greater good.
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Uncommitted citizens should read the Council's statements to better see the depth of concern and care they took with this decision.Â
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Commissioner Fritz's statement is particularly worth reading. She clearly had an open mind and listened carefully to all sides.Â
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Mayor Adam's point by point dissection of the many "reasons to oppose" is remarkable both for the scholarly science and compassion for the social justice side of this debate.
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They clearly saw that this is the right decision for Portland's greater good. One can only hope that their wisdom is adopted by the larger community.
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Portland's better oral health, especially the children's, depends on this.
we need to also add lead back to gasoline and aspestos to insulation material, spray our gardens with ddt. come on portland quit being so conspiratol. it only costs 5 million to add to our water. what the big deal: )
There can be no question as to where the mainstream legitimate experts stand on community water fluoridation (CWF) stand. The benefits are real & important.Â
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Compelling data for CWF's effectiveness is illustrated by the huge Louisiana Medicaid study which found 2/3rds of the operations for terrible cavities in kids are avoided. see: Water Fluoridation & Costs of Medicaid Treatment for Dental Decay. MMWR. CDC 09/03/1999
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In the Louisiana study 50% of the dental bills for the kids studied were avoided. If this were the only benefit 150% CWF returns in lower dental bills
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see: Prev Chronic Dis. 2012 Mar;9: A simulation model for designing effective interventions in early childhood caries. Hirsch GB, et al
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Under anesthesia procedures include extractions root canals & stainless steel crowns & cost up to $15,000 and happen more often in Portland without CWF. Data presented to the City Council showed 75% prevention of these operations in The Dalles, fluoridated since 1956.Â
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These are real children, not hypotheticals. These Portland kid's pain and disability will be the price to be paid for the mistaken views in the many "comments" written here.
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If these angry protestations prevail it will mean that more elderly, especially those who can no longer brush effectively, will have more root surface cavities. And all adults will have 0.29 more surfaces with cavities for each year they don't have fluoridated water. There are solid data to support my examples of harm which will continue in Portland if the City Council's unanimous vote is overturned. A clear understanding of the true greater good for the entire community was the reason for the 5-0 vote.
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The truth is that there are no effective alternatives. CWF is the foundation upon which public oral health interventions rest. Portland residents must come to grips with the conflict between our natural inclination to allow folks to do what they wish and our communal responsibility to the greater good.
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This is an important Social Justice issue. Portland just needs to do the right thing. Save for those blinded by the passion of their opposing beliefs, this is a no-brainer. Join the rest of the country and do what is right. Tell the signature gatherers to go do something useful.
 @Billy Budd That's alright, we have studies too. http://www.nofluoride.com/scientific_studies.htmÂ
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Only our scientific studies are real--not lobbied.Â
 @Billy Budd listen fluoride lobbyist troll, I've seen your pro fluoride posts on all of these websites.(about the only profluoride moron out there) i bet you don't live in Portland and are a paid hack who cares about nothing but which way the money flows. you can only hope that my rude comments sway the public because obviously the science isn't good enough. climb back in your hole "billy bud" , Portland will decide and not you or the outmoded city council what we will have in our water.Â
An Inconvenient Tooth is a documentary film about fluoride. It was released September 6th, 2012 at the city hall in Portland, Oregon.
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http://AnInconvenientTooth.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh-oeu2L8yM
A video collection of delusions!!Â
The last segment of a woman who believes apparently that all chemicals harm her and therefore children should have more cavities. It is charitable to label the syndrome she claims as controversial.Â
The truth is that Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) has not been defined, and no proof exists that it is a distinct disease. While the distress this woman experiences is obviously real, to leap to the conclusion that all fluoridation should cease is both unreasonable and irresponsible.
This story is sadly familiar. Someone comes to believe that their disease (kidney, thyroid, cancer, fractures, inflammatory conditions, etc etc) is related to community water fluoridation (CWF) and begins an often successful campaign to end the practice.
That none of the national, regional nor local endocrinologists (thyroid), nephrologists (kidney), orthopedists (fractures), or immunologists (inflammation) believe there to be any connection whatsoever doesn't count for much. Often as not there are specific statements by professional societies of specialists that the advocate is mistaken.Â
This case is perhaps even more egregious in that there is not general agreement that her disease even exists. For a very thorough discussion see: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mcs.html
This insanity threatens to harm Portland's oral health, especially the children.
 @Billy Budd Actually, multiple studies have proved that fluoride causes damage to internal organs over time--and that it is cumulative.
 @Billy Budd you are so obviously full of crap.
 @intooth  Fluorophobia is brought to you by the same people who think vaccines cause autism and  like 9/11 conspiracies and creationism..  Don't forget that anti-fluoridation all started with the John Birch Society. Â
 @MotherVoltaire  @intooth Actually "fluorophobia" is caused by actual scientific studies. The same people who brought you "lead is poisonous--please stop putting it in everything" and "cigarettes cause cancer--please stop smoking them".
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But I'm sure people like you don't read those kinds of things. That would be too mainstream. <---BAM! I can categorize you too!
Two doctors have posted photographs of children with dental fluorosis. Go to this link and view.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/issues/fluorosis/
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 @Bewitchin1 A bit of hyperbole on the part of these biased anti-fluoridationists.  Here are the classification of dental fluorosis courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control:
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 http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/dental_fluorosis.htm
 @MotherVoltaire  @Bewitchin1 Give a reputable source please.
@Bewitchin1 My wife has had this problem too...and every dentist she ever visited said it was because of the fluoride in the water of our home town growing up.
@JimmyWally Yep...and yet there are folks on here who are in favor of fluoride and think this is a "small" price to pay to not have cavities. Like I've said...go ahead and use this fluoride tainted water to mix your child's formula...kool-aid...sugary juices...then let's see how much less cavities they'll have in five years or so.
Okay...let's vote this in. Let fluoride be put in the water. Know what that tells communities all thru the US? That Portland parents are lazy people who are more than willing to let someone else decide what to do with their kids. Portland parents are too lazy to buy fluoridated toothpaste or allow their schools to dole out fluoride tabs (or drops, not sure how the schools are giving them). Portland parents are too lazy to purchase fluoridated mouthwashes and HEY...how about going to Walmart and buy water already containing fluoride???? Keeping that around the house will be a whole lot cheaper than what these morons are going to charge us all. It's the ONLY reason that I can see this crap being put in the water. Parents in Portland are just too, damned lazy.
 @Bewitchin1 Fluoridated water is beneficial for everyone.  It also helps the elderly who have exposed roots.  If you want dentures, just filter out the fluoride from your water. Â
 @MotherVoltaire  @Bewitchin1Â
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You can't.
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Reverse osmosis is about the only way to remove it, and it's not perfect. AND it wastes about 80% of the water in the process.
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I would not be against fluoride if I could get it out as easy as chlorine (which I already do remove I donât want to drink that either).
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 @MotherVoltaire  @Bewitchin1 As long as you're paying.
Why should they let you vote? You might vote the wrong way and mess everything up. They've got everything figured out and you just get in the way,
If this is implemented by the city council its forcing me and some of my cow friends to go out and buy water ever month. I am not going to drink or cook with this tainted industrial waste. Both bonehead front running mayoral candidates are for fluoride the only one against it is Tre Arrow. I would have a hard time voting for him but i will if Smith and Hales are going to side with fluoride.Â
 @CorporateCowMoo Luddites can always filter their water. Society should not have to pay the price of substandard dental health because some people don't know how to read a scientific paper or think that a dentist's education counts for anything.
 @MotherVoltaire  @CorporateCowMoo actually as others have said - fluoride is extremely hard to remove from water once it is added. If you want to consume it - why force everyone else to? Why not just go and buy your fluoridated water from the store? As for reading scientific papers - there are over 100 (!!!) animal studies showing that fluoride damages animal brains. There are another 10 studies showing that it changes animal behavior. There are 33 human studies showing that modest exposure to fluoride lowers IQ, and another 7 human studies showing exposure to fluoride changes human behavior. And there are 4 studies showing that fluoride damages the fetal brain.Â
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On the other side there is one small animal study in the US that didn't find any effect. There is one small study from New Zealand that didn't find an effect on IQ. There is one small study from Boston done on children that didn't find any behavior effects.Â
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Want to know more? Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gMVtf3juIBM
 @MotherVoltaire  @CorporateCowMoo Considering science says fluoride is toxic waste and does not prevent cavities--where does that leave you?
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Also, are you paying for the thousand-dollar filters? Because you should. We should not suffer organ damage based on your junk science.
 @MotherVoltaire  @CorporateCowMoo the persuasive nonsense of a hack.
We voted no on this several years ago. How come that vote no longer counts?
 @pgs55 They figure people forget--and that with a new 'wave' of voters they might be able to pull the wool over our eyes just because we were too young to vote the last time.
 @Victoria4  @pgs55Â
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People do forget.
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The Eastside (MLK) streetcar was delayed in construction for 6 months.
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Why?
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Because when they began to grind down the street to lower the grade to make room for the tracksâ¦..they ran into tracks.
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The ones the city abandoned last time we had streetcars and got rid of them because they were a bad idea.
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Dan Saltzman's statement explaining his yes vote
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"As the city's children's commissioner, I oversee nearly $100 million in taxpayer funds to protect and care for children through the Portland Children's Levy. When I make those investment decisions I look for proven means to maximize the health, safety and welfare of our kids. "
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What do we see? Â Ah yes, pull out the emotional card, it's for the children....what type of monster would not want to help the poor little children......(VOMIT) Â Oh so a few kids have bad teeth and their parents are too lazy to make them brush or too lazy to go buy fluoride rinse at the store, so we have to waste tax payer money to combat THEIR laziness. Â As comic book guy in the Simpsons would say "worst excuse EVER."
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"Some opponents argue we should not flouridate our water because dental health is an individual's responsibility. While this is a nice concept in theory, the reality is a three-year old child cannot be expected to take responsibility for their own dental health. "
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Just like we don't expect a 3 year old to pay rent, get to school on time, eat the proper foods....it is up to their parents are guardians to ensure they they take responsibility for their dental health. Â I remember my parents teaching me about brushing when I was really little. Â They watched me every morning and every night to make sure I brushed.....that also was a nice concept in theory....you know, my parents actually PARENTING me!
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"A child in foster care who has been in a dozen foster homes cannot be expected to ensure that the adults looking after her get her proper dental care or even have access to her dental records"
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Wow, just when I thought the emotional card was played, good ole Dan Saltzman brings out a dilly.  It is not just the children but think of the poor little children in foster care.  If you don't care enough about kids with a permanent home, what about kids without....keep tugging on those heartstrings Dan!  Now on the flip side, if a foster parent does not force the kid to brush, maybe they should not be foster parents!  Or maybe all foster parents should get vouchers to get free fluoride rise at the store....
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"The single most effective, safest, and affordable way to extend life-long dental health to our youngest Portlanders is to fluoridate our drinking water."
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No the single most effective, safest and affordable way to extend life-long dental health is to brush and floss at least twice a day! Â It worked for me.....
 @B Smizzle Many studies show that fluoridation lowers cavities an additional 20-40% over and above the use of all other sources of fluoride.  That translates to one less needless cavity every 3 years.  That's because ingested fluoride, via the saliva, continually remineralizes the thin protective layer over the teeth. Â
 @MotherVoltaire  @B Smizzle Ingested fluoride causes mental retardation and does not remineralize teeth via saliva. You are sooo full of it.
 @MotherVoltaire  @B Smizzle yes, who would want 90 cavities by the time they're thirty. thanks for thinking of the children your graciousness.
Mass "medication" without oversight or consent is simply insane. How this practice has continued for this long is beyond me. And the science proves it is a health hazard (see EPA 2006 Review of Fluoride in Drinking Water). No thank you. Oh, I forgot, they don't care what the public wants or thinks.
 @Lalahulu If fluoridation is "mass medication," then drinking water is "naturally medicated."  It's just a matter adjusting the level of fluoride ions.  All ground water has it, but often just not enough to prevent decay. Â
 @MotherVoltaire  @Lalahulu youre running out of BS.
 @stevie.t@usa.com  @MotherVoltaire  @Lalahulu She's treading water at this point.Â