The Board of Trustees in Hamburg Township, home of Hell, Michigan, voted this week by a 5-2 vote, to ban water fluoridation in their community.
Hartland Township will no longer fluoridate its water supply.
The Board of Trustees voted 5-2 Tuesday to immediately cease adding the element to its water supply after a lengthy discussion that echoed what became a two-month-long debate.
Beginning today, 368 private water customers, plus several commercial businesses and schools connected to the system, will no longer receive fluoride in their water.
“I think it was the correct decision,” said Trustee Glenn Harper, who brought the issue to the board in October after researching fluoridation on his own.
He called fluoride a health hazard, and stated people should make their own choices regarding its use.
“It was a controversial issue, but that it was controversial is the strongest reason not to fluoridate,” Harper said. “We should not be making people’s health decisions.”
It’s controversial only because those who don’t believe in science capitulate to the fear-mongers who are throw backs to the era of communist conspiracy theories and the John Birch Society’s opposition to “mass medicine”. Nevermind the many benefits or the scientific evidence that it’s harmless and actually helpful. This self-appointed arbiter of what is truth and what is not conveniently ignores the data and sides with the conspiracy freaks. Here’s a hint, Mr. Harper, you can find webpages to support any position on the innernetz. I’m just sayin’…
Harper recently decided that Hamburg residents were against fluoridation simply because nobody showed up at a council meeting to object. He did not make the reverse assumption at a subsequent meeting when people did show up to protest and nobody showed up to support his bogus scientific research, however.
“It looks like the vast majority of people are not advocates for us keeping (fluoridation),” Harper said. Treasurer Kathie Horning and Supervisor Bill Fountain expressed similar statements, suggesting that perhaps since people didn’t come out to speak in favor of fluoridation that they didn’t care either way.Jordan Genso, a Hartland Township resident who uses the water supply, said the argument goes both ways. First off, he said, health professionals, including dentists and doctors like Livingston County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Donald Lawrenchuk, spoke in favor of fluoridation, and their opinions should matter.
Secondly, Genso said, nobody showed up to denounce fluoridation.
“I’m surprised they want to use what they perceive as a lack of public (support) in favor of fluoride — they think that’s a legitimate reason to get rid of it, yet nobody showed up against fluoride, either,” Genso said. “I would argue that most people do not have free time in this economy to put in the effort of making sure public officials are doing the right thing. They have more important things to worry about in their lives than keeping radical conspiracy theorists from changing public services.”
Congratulations, Hamburg. Your dentists will probably see an uptick in the number of fillings and other dental procedures in a few short years.
Does that make this a “job creating” decision maybe?
