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These Virginia towns are moving away from water fluoridation

Charles Rex Arbogast
/
AP Photo

Two Virginia towns have voted to stop adding fluoride to their water supply, citing cost savings between $10,000 and $20,000 each year. Nationally, the Environmental Protection Agency said in April that it’s begun a review of the practice’s safety.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls fluoridation a safe, effective and cost-saving measure.

Luray’s Town Manager Bryan T. Chrisman wrote in an email that council members read peer-reviewed medical research, conducted their own inquiries and spoke with residents before voting in June to discontinue the practice.

Alan Robbins has been a dentist in Timberville for 37 years, where the town council voted to end fluoridation in April. Robbins says children in low-income families will be most affected by the change.

“When you drink water that has optimal fluoride in it, then the fluoride ions are incorporated in the developing teeth," Robbins says. "So that strengthens the teeth that are developing.”

The CDC says the practice reduces tooth decay in both children and adults by about 25%. The agency also cited research indicating savings of $20 for each dollar spent on fluoridation.

Robbins says the difference he sees between patients who have fluoridated water and residents with well water is “night and day.”

“I'll ask them if they have well water or town water, and [what] they had when they were growing up," Robbins says. "And you know, most of the time, if they have rampant decay, they have not had fluoridated water in their life.”

Timberville Town Manager Austin Garber didn’t respond to a request for comment.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.