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The initial cost to the village would be $140,800, with an estimated operating cost of $8,500 each year.
Fluoride proponents are numerous and have ample resources to bolster their positions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Dental Association, the Alzheimer’s Association, the World Health Organization, the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and about 100 others recognize the public health benefits of community water fluoridation for preventing dental decay.
Fluoride opponents are not as powerful, but they are convinced that fluoridating water supplies is not only detrimental to dental health but could be a significant contributing factor in many diseases.
Opponents are concerned fluoridated water contributes to hip fractures among the elderly, lower IQs in developing infant brains, sperm damage in animals and other bodily harm.
Loretta Perry of Holmen is concerned not enough attention is being paid to the findings of Christopher Bryson, which are outlined in his book “The Fluoride Deception.”
Nor, she said, is enough attention paid to pharmacologist Dr. Arvid Carlsson, 2000 Nobel laureate for medicine, who said the addition of fluoride to water supplies violates modern pharmacological principles. He argues fluoridating community water supplies does not recognize the enormous individual variations in responses to drugs.
For others, like Sheryl Jacobson, a nurse who lives in Holmen, it comes down to costs. Instead of spending $60 a year on fluoride tablets, she would rather see the community water fluoridated so all can have fluoride’s protection.
Martha McCabe, a West Salem resident who works for CouleeCap, is spearheading an effort to spur community water fluoridation in several western Wisconsin communities. The organization hopes to receive a grant that will help them advocate for fluoridation to help low-income children stave off dental disease and would help communities purchase necessary equipment.
McCabe said children on Medicaid and their parents are severely limited in their access to dentists and would benefit from fluoridated water.
CouleeCap is on the steering committee of Citizens for Better Dental Health in Holmen. McCabe and the group believe the material being put out by Berkley and others on the Internet amount to pseudoscience.
“With the Internet today, that allows anyone to post anything whether it’s scientifically based or not; pseudoscience can be posted,” McCabe said. “Our group is trying to put out credible articles and scientific studies (challenging the pseudoscience).”
