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Voters reject fluoride

Ketchikan Daily News
October 2, 1991
By Janie Dunworth and Belinda Chase, Daily News Staff Writers

Voters gave a stern nod of opposition to fluoride and non-area-wide sewer powers Tuesday, but gave a supportive nod to five new projects.

An impressive vote showed that city residents don't want their water fluoridated. They said "no" to fluoridation by marking "yes" on their fluoridation proposition ballots. Fluoridation opponents tallied 1,166 votes, with 624 people voting for the fluoridation project.

"I'm really glad. I'm thankful now. I won't have to worry about it any more. I think they must have been pretty well informed," said Lois Romine, a Ketchikan resident who has been vocal with her opposition to fluoride.

Romine is responsible for getting the issue back on the ballot as she obtained the necessary petition signatures.

Fluoridation has been a controversial issue in the First City for several years. In an advisory proposition in 1988, voters approved, by a slim margin, the fluoridation of the city's water system.

The Ketchikan City Council has halted any action on the project because conflicting reports on the effects of fluoride have surfaced over the past few years. No action will be necessary now.

Fluoride back at ballot box

Ketchikan Daily News
September 21-22, 1991
By Janie Dunworth, Daily News Staff Writer

To fluoridate or not to fluoridate. That is the question that voters will answer at the ballot box on Oct. 1. It shouldn't be a tough decision, according to Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, because fluoride is fatal.

"For God sakes, vote yes to stop fluoridation," Yiamouyiannis said Friday.

The biochemist, author and president of the Safe Water Foundation in Washington State, visited the First City on Friday and Saturday. He was scheduled to speak Friday evening at Reville High School and will participate in a fluoride booth at Ketchikan's Health Fair on Saturday.

Yiamouyiannis, who calls himself the world's leading expert on fluoridation, said he started studying fluoride and its effects with Dr. Dean Burk, former chief chemist with the U.S. National Cancer Institute, in 1975. The studies, Yiamouyiannis said, showed that 10,000 cancer deaths were caused by fluoride in water supplies.

"These people would not have died if it wasn't for fluoride in the water."

Studies show link

A multitude of studies throughout the last two decades have linked fluoride to other forms of cancer, he said, including osteosarcoma and hepatocholangio carcinoma.

All of this information on the harmful effects of fluoride, Yiamouyiannis said, has been covered up by the American Dental Association and the U.S. Public Health Service since the 1950s.

The information given to dentists and the public since the 1950's has been fraudulent and is the key to a class action lawsuit filed on Sept. 12 with the Washington D.C. District Court. On behalf of more than 25 dentists nation-wide, Yiamouyiannis filed the suit. He estimated that more than 200 dentists would be involved. He said he believes that testimony will "sink their boat" within six to eight months. Then, Yiamouyiannis said, the monetary compensations will be pursued.

"They were lied to by their association," he said.

Other harmful effects

Besides the misinformation surrounding the cancer links, Yiamouyiannis said, the belief that fluoride prevents tooth decay is untrue.

Yiamouyiannis said fluoride has done many harmful things, including the chronic poisoning of more than 150 million Americans. In addition, he said, 25 million of those people are so badly poisoned that white, chalky effects can be seen on their teeth. He alleges that fluoride is also responsible for a large number of the 40 million people that are suffering from arthritis.

Yiamouyiannis said about 50 percent of the population in the United States use fluoridated water systems. He said the association is on the verge of ending the lies about fluoride and it would be stupid to vote it into the First City's water system.

Local opponent

Lois Romine, a local opponent of fluoridation, helped put the fluoride issue back on the ballot. She obtained 535 signatures on a petition that called for the issue to go before voters again in the form of a proposition on Oct. 1.

By a slim margin, voters approved fluoridation of the city's water system in 1988. Contradicting reports on the effects of fluoridation prompted the Ketchikan City Council to stall any action.

Romine has said that she believes there are potential health risks. If the city fluoridates her water, she said, it is infringing on her rights. She also said the cost of fluoridating Ketchikan's water has increased as well.

Fluoridation project

The fluoridation project was placed in the Ketchikan Public Utilities 1991 budget with a $150,000 cap. According to KPU Manager Tom Stevenson, $300,000 is a closer estimate.

In January, Councilman Tom Coyne addressed the issue by penning a motion that would have directed KPU to provide opponents of fluoridation with a fluoride filter. Utility officials estimated the filter installation costs at between $250 and $350 per household. The motion failed.

Conflicting Reports

Reports on the pros and cons of fluoridation have been surfacing for years. While some reports claim that fluoride may be linked to cancer and other harmful effects, other reports combat that belief.

The Associated Press reported in February that federal health officials recommended the continued use of fluoride to help prevent tooth decay. The report stated that after a year of scientific study, no evidence was found that fluoride causes cancer in humans.

Yiamouyiannis said that the issue has been covered up for many years.

The proposition

The proposition facing voters is as follows:

"Shall the following ordinance be adopted? The city of Ketchikan shall not engage in the practice of fluoridating its domestic drinking water."

'Just good, basic science'
 Local dentist advocates fluoride

Ketchikan Daily News
September 27, 1991
By Janie Dunworth, Daily News Staff Writer

If Ketchikan residents vote against fluoridation of the city's water system on Oct. 1, they are giving up dental health benefits, according to a local dentist.

"They would be losing the chance to make a dramatic improvement in the dental health of their community," said Dr. Kevin Craig, a dentist with Alaska Native Health.

"Why shouldn't we have the benefit?" he added.

Fluoridating community water systems has been a controversial issue for several years - not only in Ketchikan, but across the nation. While many organizations, including the American Dental Association, the American Cancer Society, and the U.S. Public Health Service have stressed that fluoridation does prevent tooth decay and does not affect the causation of various types of cancer, anti-fluoridation groups beg to differ.

Background

In an advisory proposition in 1988, Ketchikan voters approved fluoridation of the city's water system by a slim margin. Contradicting reports on the effects of fluoridation prompted the Ketchikan City Council to stall any action.

The fluoridation project was placed in the Ketchikan Public Utilities 1991 budget with a $150,000 cap. According to KPU manager Tom Stevenson, it will cost about $300,000 to fluoridate the system.

One local opponent of fluoridation, Lola Romine, obtained 585 petition signatures, which placed the issue back on next weeks ballot.

The benefits

Dentists in Ketchikan, according to Craig, were not pleased with an article that recently ran in the Ketchikan Daily News that featured Dr. John Yiamouyiannis, a well-known anti-fluoridation advocate.

Craig said the dentists want the community to know about the benefits of fluoridation - and about the inaccuracies of Yiamouyiannis' claims.

Yiamouyiannis reported that "fluoride is fatal" and was directly responsible for 10,000 cancer deaths.

Criticism

Another local dentist gave the Daily News a copy of a book entitled "Abuse of the Scientific Literature in an Anti-fluoridation Pamphlet." The book picked apart Yiamouyiannis' "Lifesavers Guide to Fluoridation." In the introduction to the book, Dr. Stephen Barrett, a practicing psychiatrist and a consumer advocate, said "John Yiamouyiannis calls himself 'the world's leading authority on the biologist effects of fluoride.' He appears brilliant - and determined. Had he chosen a positive direction he might well have made a valuable contribution to science. But he has not. For more than 15 years he has been obsessed with the idea that water fluoridation is dangerous. I have seen Dr. Yiamouyiannis in action. He is personable and appears sincere. Though public health officials regard him as a terrorist, to the uninformed he appears credible. His activities have frightened many communities into opposing fluoridation."

In addition, a local dentist submitted a "Consumer Reports" article that examined, in part, the validity of Yiamouyiannis reports on the harmful effects of fluoridation. The article stated that after the magazine published the reports, Yiamouyiannis filed an $8 million libel suit against the Consumers Union, charging that the article defamed him. Eventually, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld an earlier decision made by the U.S. District Court that dismissed Yiamouyiannis' suit: The suggestion is strong that the plaintiff's object in bringing this action is to use this court to discourage the publication of opposing views.

Yiamouyiannis reacts

In an interview from Ohio on Thursday, Yiamouyiannis defended his pamphletand his reports on the harmful effects of fluoride.

He tagged the book that scrutinizes his studies as "bull -----"

"These guys are really bad. They hope you never get to page one," Yiamouyiannis said, stressing that the references and statements in his pamphlet are accurate.

"They are more concerned about their reputations than public health. We're fighting against a tremendous amount of money and power," he said.

Yiamouyiannis described the controversial issue as a "battle of truth against power and money."

Support of fluoridation

Craig claims that studies throughout the past few decades have proven that fluoride does prevent tooth decay, does not contribute to cancer and other diseases and is safe and effective. He said fluoridation of the city's water system is the most economical means of preventing tooth decay.

In addition, he said, the many organizations that promote fluoride wouldn't do so if it was harming the public.

"It's in the water already and people aren't dropping dead," he said.

"It's just good, basic science. It's something we see as a real benefit to the community," Craig added.

He said the only communities in Alaska, with the exception of small rural ones, that do not have fluoridated systems are Ketchikan and Wrangell.

Craig has been a dentist for 12 years and he said he has seen the difference in dental health for people who drink fluoridated water and those who do not drink it. He said people in Klawock drink from a fluoridated system and they do not have "nearly the decay rate" that people in Ketchikan have.

"It benefits everybody - especially those who can't afford dental care, he said.

It is easy to defeat a fluoride proposition, Craig said, because all anti-fluoridation groups have to do is "put a little fear in their hearts." The mention of cancer, he said, usually clinches a vote of opposition.

Heavy-hitting support

When the issue was heating up locally in 1988, then Surgeon General C. Everett Koop wrote a letter to First City residents. In the letter, Koop stated: "fluoridation of community water supplies to reduce dental disease is an excellent example of a highly effective and efficient preventive method which offers a potential benefit to nearly everyone."

In a report release in February of this year by the Department of Health and Human Services, the benefits of fluoridation were defended.

"Fluoride has substantial benefits in the prevention of tooth decay. Numerous studies, taken together, clearly establish a causal relationship between water fluoridation and the prevention of dental caries (destruction of bone)," the report stated.

Opposition

Romine said she is appealing to the people of Ketchikan who support fluoridation.

"I want to appeal to the people who like fluoride," she said.

Romine said people who want to use fluoride can do so on their own by purchasing tablets or other fluoride supplements.

Craig said this method isn't acceptable because "people don't take the tablets and don't follow through."

He stressed that a fluoridated water system will benefit the entire community. There is no comparison, Craig said, between the cost of fluoridating the system and the cost of dental care.

What is fluoride?

According to the American Dental Association, fluoride is an ion that comes from the element fluorine. Fluorine is the 13th most abundant element in the earth's crust and is never encountered in its free state in nature. It is found, the association reported, as a constituent of minerals in rocks and soils everywhere. Water passes over the rock formations containing fluoride and dissolves the compounds. The result is that small amounts of soluble fluorine ions are present in all water sources, including the oceans.

Fluoride passes; run-off set for school board

Ketchikan Daily News
October 6, 1988

The tallying of absentee ballots Wednesday decided two Oct. 4 races that were too close to call Tuesday. Fluoridation was narrowly approved by voters; and the third school board member will be determined in a run-off election.

Of the 7,468 registered voters in the community, 3,101 people turned out in Tuesday's municipal election. Inside the city of Ketchikan, there were 1,956 voters, outside the city, there were 877 voters, and 268 people voted absentee. There were 38 votes not counted in the race for various reasons. In Ketchikan there were 42 write-in candidates.

The advisory measure that asked voters if the city of Ketchikan's water system should be fluoridated passed 1,085 to 994. The advisory measure will now go before the Ketchikan City Council for discussions, although it is not a formal agenda item in tonight's meeting.

(Remainder of article covers other election items)

Fluoride verdict is out; absentees decide

Ketchikan Daily News
October 5, 1988

A measure advising the city of Ketchikan to fluoridate its water was passing by a narrow 64 vote margin Tuesday, October 4, as the final unofficial returns were tallied in the City Council Chambers at 10:02 p.m.

The 946 to 882 vote leaves more than enough room for the tables to turn by today, when the city's 198 absentee ballots are slated to be counted.

(Remainder of this article covered other election items)

Fluoridation debate continues

Ketchikan Daily News
October 3, 1988
By Jeri Lessard, Daily News Staff Writer

Freedom of choice is the primary reason Heather Muench opposes fluoridation of Ketchikan's drinking water.

On the other hand, local dentist Dr. Charles Reed denies that fluoridation can be considered "compulsory medication," which implies a cure. Fluoridation is simply a good preventive measure against tooth decay, he said.

An advisory vote regarding fluoridation is among the ballot measures in the Oct. 4 election. Ketchikan voters will respond to the question, placed on the ballot by the Ketchikan City Council: "Should the city of Ketchikan, Alaska fluoridate its public water supply?"

Because of the ballot measure's wording, the vote won't necessarily result in action by the city officials one way or another.

Forced Feeding?

"Fluoridation is available to those who want it," Mrs. Muench said.

The Ketchikan Health Center on Park Avenue provides a free bottle of fluoride drops which will last about three months, she noted. Fluoride tablets can be purchased at local drug stores for about $5 and will last 100 to 200 days, depending on the child's age."

"It comes down to your constitutional rights," Mrs. Muench said, and whether the government should mandate a medication which is not treating a contagious or life threatening disease.

Among several fluoridation opponents who organized a Ketchikan group, Mrs. Muench also is concerned about "some serious safety questions" which have remained unanswered since fluoridation was first used in water supplies more than 40 years ago.

She alleges the American medical community has suppressed information regarding potential harmful side effects from fluoridation. When a study comes up with "the wrong conclusion," they fault the study itself.

Mrs. Muench is concerned about the effect of fluoridation on kidneys, particularly because she has suffered from kidney infections in the past. She noted an article in the August 1 issue of Chemical and Engineering News magazine which cites a possible connection between kidney dysfunction and skeletal fluorosis, defined in the magazine as "a complicated illness caused by the accumulation of too much fluoride in the bones."

A heavy water drinker, perhaps up to a gallon daily, Mrs. Muench wonders if her past kidney ailments combined with increased fluoride could lead to an incurable kidney disease.

Reed said he is not concerned about alleged negative impacts to health due to fluoridation and described the magazine's article as more editorial or opinion than fact. He said many of the studies cited are inconclusive and involve animals and not human beings.

He noted that calcium fluoride occurs naturally in drinking water, but not always at 1 part per million - the desired level for decay prevention. Ketchikan's level has been reported at 0.4 part per million.

Mrs. Muench said she has been told by Ketchikan Public Utilities officials that they would model the local fluoridation system after an existing operation in Sitka.

Three types of artificial fluoride, all products of fertilizer manufacturing, are use dot adjust drinking water to 1 part per million. Like Sitka, Mrs. Muench said KPU would use sodium silicofluoride.

Sherry Homan, another fluoridation opponent is concerned about the toxic level of artificial fluoride as compared to natural fluoride. Mrs. Muench noted that fluoride can corrode water pipes and that special measures must be taken in building fluoridation facilities because of the chemical's toxic quality.

Mrs. Homan reported the artificial additive rates as "very toxic" to "extremely toxic" - 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 - 6, with 6 being the most toxic. Calcium fluoride rates 3 on the same scale.

In response, Reed said artificial fluoride ionizes in the water and comes out with very little difference from natural fluoride.

Fluoride and tooth decay

Mrs. Muench's concerns go beyond safety and freedom of choice. She also questions how beneficial fluoride is in preventing decay and how cost effective it would be to add fluoride to the drinking water.

Also quoting from the Chemical and Engineering News, Mrs. Muench noted 24 studies in eight countries which indicate reductions in tooth decay are just as great in non-fluoridated as fluoridated areas. Other studies indicate cavities in the "pit and fissure" surfaces of teeth are not reduced by fluoride.

Reed said the dental profession takes other kinds of measures to prevent pit and fissure cavities, but fluoride is effective in preventing decay on smooth surfaces such as between teeth and along the gum line.

Mrs. Muench said the current KPU customers, as of Aug. 1, could be supplied with fluoride tablets for four years for the same money estimated by KPU officials just to start up a fluoridation program. Estimated annual maintenance costs could supply those water users with 1-1/2 years of fluoride.

Drinking water fluoridation has been touted as a way to insure children receive fluoride without depending on parents to administer a daily dose.

"This isn't a parenting issue," Mrs. Muench said. "IF they can't take time to give this to their kids, it isn't the government's job."

She also cited the difficult options open to opponents of fluoridation if the city drinking water is fluoridated. Mrs. Homan described the water purifying machines, which specifically must be able to remove fluoride, as "pretty high priced".

"Once (fluoride) is put in the city water supply, it's hard to get it out," Mrs. Muench said.

Reed supports fluoridation as a major benefit to public health in Ketchikan. In his practice with the Alaska Native Health Clinic, he sees a significant difference between the tooth decay rates here when compared to fluoridated communities where he has worked in the lower 48 and even other Southeast Alaska communities with fluoridated water.

He said drinking water fluoridation can make a positive difference regardless of oral hygiene, such as brushing and flossing. He worked with inner city children in Detroit, who had a low cavity rate despite their oral hygiene habits.

"Most of the stuff is twisted around to make fluoridation look bad," Reed said of the opponents' arguments. "I just hope people aren't misled by these scare tactics and half-truths."

15 million drink it

He noted that 15 million Americans drink fluoridated water with 1 part per million naturally and there are not numerous reports of intolerance to the substance.

Reed said the local and national medical and dental professions are wholeheartedly behind using fluoridation to prevent tooth decay.

The dentist also cited the July-August 1988 issue of Consumer Reports magazine which referred to the anti-fluoridation effort as a "fake controversy." The World Health Organization has determined the only side effect of fluoridation at 1 part per million is reduced tooth decay, he added.

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Council decides against fluoridation

Anchorage Daily News (State News)
July 27, 1988
Daily News staff and wire reports

KETCHIKAN The Ketchikan City Council has voted narrowly against asking voters whether they want their drinking water fluoridated. By a onevote margin, the council decided not to place the fluoridation issue on the Oct. 4 ballot. Rejection of the council resolution last week came during a meeting that included testimony by two residents who said they object to fluoridation without the consent of each consumer. Councilman Tom Friesen said that if the fluoridation issue appears on the ballot, it should be because of a voters' referendum, not because of a resolution by the council. Mayor Ted Ferry said the fluoride issue has been defeated at least twice in Ketchikan.