Nodding to Tea Party, Pinellas (FL) Commission Stops Community Water Fluoridation

[pampango]

In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited community water fluoridation as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the last century. Last week, Pinellas commissioners voted 4-3 to stop fluoridating the water for cities such as St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Pinellas Park and for 700,000 residents who live in unincorporated parts of the county.

The vote was apparently a political nod to the tea party, which reportedly opposed fluoridation because it costs money and it’s yet another example of government intrusion. Commission newcomer Norm Roche had been elected last year with tea party backing. And tea party activism reportedly pushed another commissioner, John Morroni, to switch his vote after he voted for fluoridation in 2003.

From Washington, D.C., to city and county halls, the tea party’s oversized voice is being heard: Shutting down the government is a good thing. Global warming is non-existent. Evolution has no greater validity than creationism. President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. Immigration will destroy the country. And now, water fluoridation is dangerous.

“I think the tea party has engulfed themselves or surrounded themselves with conspiracy theorists,” former Pinellas County Commissioner Ronnie Duncan said. He believes the commission would be better served dealing with more pressing problems such as unemployment.

http://fcir.org/2011/10/10/nodding-to-tea-party-pinellas-commission-stops-community-water-fluoridation/

Science takes a back seat for teabaggers once again. Fear and conspiracy theories seem to govern them.

[stlsaxman]

1. K&R for posting... figures this had to happen one day- figures, too, in Florida.

"Mandrake, ever heard of fluoridation...?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2bSL5VQgM

[RegieRocker]

4. Flouride is a poison just like mercury.

Anyone who thinks it's OK to put toxins in your body is simply ignorant of the facts.

[NutmegYankee]

6. Nearly everything we eat is poisonous in high doses.

And yet, we need most of it in low doses to survive or be healthy.

[RegieRocker]

9. Just because there are naturally occurring minerals in food and the

the fact you would die from too much of those chemicals means nothing. There are many plants and animals that are not safe to eat which cause death quite soon. Long term our short term is still bad. Debilitating consequences are not acceptable either. This is the reason for studies on diet and the vegan diet. So that dog don't hunt.

[NutmegYankee]

10. Some of those chemicals are called Vital Amines.

Also known as vitamins. As for fluoride, it has been proven to protect teeth from decay (a significant advantage in health), and there have not been any deaths or illness from the low doses used. We have years of data well from beyond the start of fluoridation because parts of the US have it in the water naturally. And those people did just fine, though they oddly kept teeth longer and died less from tooth infections. Spare me the Woo.

[RegieRocker]

27. Spare me the blood letting justification.

No reason to internally ingest flouride a poison. No reason to ingest any poisons period. For anyone else that possibly could be concerned look at this
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/735486

[formercia]

12. Mercury is a Heavy Metal, Fluorine is not.

Ignorance is bliss.

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Fluoride promotes dental health at low levels, at higer levels it is toxic.

In contrast, mercury has no useful function in the body and is a cumulative toxin.

Comparing apples to organges only makes you look ... well, ignorant of the facts. Try reading some of the links in this post to get the hysteria-free viewpoint: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=954152&mesg_id=955930

[SidDithers]

36. Oh my...

:banghead:

You can't possibly serious.

Sid

[RegieRocker]

7. When it comes to health safety Americans close to dead last on flouride.

http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=3304
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/government-reduce-fluoride-levels-drinking-water-because-too-much-fluoride-can-cause-health-

[Dogtown]

2. Another step back toward the 19th Century. n/t

[RegieRocker]

5. Regarding food that might not be a bad idea.

More locally grown and farm raised organically is what the 19th century was.

[Dogtown]

24. Refrigeration.

Had to be local, they couldn't ship it fast enough to keep it from rotting.

Don't get me wrong, I detest factory farming, but we have a huge population to feed.


Stepping back in time will not solve any problems. I garden for as many vegetables (vegetarian) as I can to avoid wasting money on nearly inedible rubbish, but most can't, or won't, or don't mind buying substandard produce if it's waxed up and presented cosmetically.

Besides, most shoppers I've seen are too busy on their fones to notice what they're buying.

[RegieRocker]

29. Huh? Organic farming is shipped and refrigerated.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RegieRocker]

31. Sold on the gmo food feeds many more people I see.

Antibiotics, steroids etc in animals too. Nice.

[Dogtown]

38. I know I said I wouldn't rise to your bait again,

but your broad-brush is so ludicrous I can't resist.

I mentioned factory-farming as a necessary evil, let me expand to say that if people would curtail their dependence on meat it would be less necessary. It's clearly more nutritiously economical to raise legumes than cows, but try to force Americans to eat beans rather than flesh...

Genetically modified foods aren't inherently bad, it's the preference for maximizing profits that hurts the research. If crops were modified to enhance nutrition rather than profitability, I'd support modification w/o question.

Suggesting I support antibiotics/steroid introduction into farm animals is emblematic of your tunnel-vision.

I don't eat *any* animals, so I don't fear *or* support the use of additives in cattle. If you're still cave-manning your protein needs, it should be of concern to you.

I only buy free-range eggs, because they're tastier and have a better chemical-compatibility to my recipes.

I mentioned my personal gardening, for both my table and my pipe. I hate the taste of etheline-laden tomatoes picked rock-hard and green for shipping.

Fluoride? Grew up in a city with fluoride-enhanced water. Did not have a single cavity until I turned 46. Only had 1 since then, and I'm 62. Some "poisons" are also medicines, when taken in moderation.

Moderation, dude. The answer to many health problems.

If you want to be a Luddite I don't really care. If you want your kid's teeth to rot or don't mind if they get polio or measles, that's your choice. Move out to Bumfuck, Yesteryear and experience the Clean Life.

If you don't starve.

I note that you list St. Louis as your home. That's the same city that saved me from tooth-rot. Perhaps you should move to St. Petersburg where they won't "poison" your children. :evilgrin:


Deep, sincere apologies for my "gotcha" response. I usually don't tease the animals, but some ostrich-like posturing deserves no less.

[RegieRocker]

41. You're so high on yourself it's hilarious.

Just more nonsense about your silly little view. Cave men ate eggs. You promote commercialized genetically modified farming so you can type all the hogwash you want it doesn't change that fact. Toothpaste is fine for preventing tooth decay. I have had plenty of cavities and I am born and raised in St. Louis. Your no cavity is from brushing, flossing and most of all teeth cleaning. So spare people of your nonsense. Ingesting toxins is blood letting and a cave mans solution. Moderation my ass. Abstinence is the solution to most health problems. Now go put your head in that hole.

[trotsky]

32. And what was our life expectancy back then?

All that local organic food, "no" fluoride or mercury, gosh we must have lived into our 200s. Right?

[RegieRocker]

44. You have much to learn. Start with life expectancy of your

family tree members and cause of death.

[quaker bill]

3. Floridation

messes up our precious bodily fluids.... (see Dr. Strangelove)

[TroglodyteScholar]

8. It's a good day to be a dentist in Pinellas... n/t

[hatrack]

11. "Ice cream, Mandrake? Childrens' ice cream?!?!"

[stlsaxman]

26. Careful- RegieRocker doesn't get the joke... nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Next week they'll ban chemtrails

[Evasporque]

14. Col. Jack D. Ripper would be pleased...

Ripped right from the movies...lol



"precious bodily fluids..."

"Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream."

[Blue_Tires]

15. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't all some big joke

or social experiment and the teabaggers are seeing just how much they can get away with...

[Javaman]

16. no, it's a nod to the libertarian john asshole birchers.

if it were a nod to the tea party, they would force people to pump their own water.

Any dentists out there, move to Pinellas, Florida.

[eilen]

17. Next Pinellas Cty will give its citizens the right to

contract polio. Keep dialing it back Pinellas. Eventually you will be creating your own leper colonies.

[Lucian]

18. I would like to see more fluoride taken out of water.

I don't trust fluoride. Christ, when I buy fluoride at the store, it says in bold letters DO NOT SWALLOW and that if you do, contact the Poison Control Center immediately, yet they're putting it in my drinking water. :wtf:

I brush my teeth at least twice a day and I use fluoride (but don't swallow it). I don't need more of that shit in my drinking water.

[NutmegYankee]

19. Toothpaste is a very concentrated dose.

Treated water on the other hand has very low doses. Many good substances are lethal in high doses. Too much of a vitamin or mineral can make you sick or be lethal.

[Lucian]

22. Yeah, but I don't swallow toothpaste either.

[NutmegYankee]

23. Probably for the same reason you don't swallow the mouth wash.

Which was my point. For instance, Acetic acid when mixed with water at a 5% concentration makes the useful cleaner and food accessory known as vinegar. At 100% concentration it can inflict severe burns. Concentration matters.

[trotsky]

33. Science illiteracy is a huge problem in our country.

And it crosses political lines.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. I want my freedom to have my water UNFLUORIDATED

Thank you very much! :crazy:

[Lyric]

34. So buy it at the store. nt

[NutmegYankee]

21. I wish my water was fluoridated.

I live in the rural side of Connecticut (East of the Connecticut river), and their isn't enough population to require fluoridation. Many of my neighbors are on well water.

[RegieRocker]

28. Buy some! Drink up be merry.

[Canuckistanian]

35. Will pharmacists refuse to sell fluoridated toothpaste, too?

'cause fluoride is a big gubmint plot!

[MelungeonWoman]

37. Fear and conspiracy theories

Brought to the rubes directly from the powers that be.

This will cause actual, physical pain to many 99%ers.

The 1%ers will see a net gain in money through dentistry and no longer having to pay for the flouridation.



pain + $ = win



We are ruled by psychic vampires.
:rant:

[hifiguy]

39. Every time you think the baggers can't get any dumber

they prove the world wrong. They have scraped through the bottom of the stoopid barrel and are now headed for the Earth's core. :crazy:

[SidDithers]

40. If they don't deliver the flouride through the water system...

they'll just give us our required daily dosage through chemtrails.

They can't be stopped.

Sid

[MrMickeysMom]

42. I used to live in Pinellas County, and my sister retired back there...

I kept wondering why, in their retirement, and after the Republicanization of Florida (I left not long after this started in the 90's), ANYONE would prefer to put up with this slope brow, knuckle dragging wild, wild East gun toting less than civil society. They've severely cut budgets in a state that otherwise has no income tax, while continuing to ruin the environment.

I wouldn't classify the Tea Party as having enough cogent ideas to form a theory.

[marions ghost]

43. !!! On this ONE thing I agree with teabaggers...

Flouride should NOT be added to drinking water (or used in toothpaste either).

Read up on it.

-------------
From an article posted above:

HEALTH CONCERNS
Hardy Limeback, the head of the preventive dentistry program at the University of Toronto, says, “Fluoridation is no longer effective (and adding the chemical to water is) more harmful than beneficial.”

“A number of medical journal studies have linked exposure to altered thyroid function, and to reduced IQ levels in children, although the intellectual impairments were found at levels of the chemical in water well above those used for municipal supplies. The most worrisome study, by Harvard researchers, appeared in 2006 in the journal Cancer Causes and Control and found that boys aged 7 exposed to high levels of fluoridated water were about four times more likely to develop childhood osteosarcoma. It’s a rare bone cancer that felled Canadian icon Terry Fox and almost always leads to amputations.”

AROUND THE WORLD
Fluoridation is primarily done in Canada, the United States and Australia, but almost nowhere else in the world. Western Europe and Japan have almost no fluoridated water supplies.

For a list of countries around the world that have banned the fluoridation of drinking water, go to http://www.actionpa.org/fluoride/countries.pdf.

http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=3304