CITYWIDE By the time the sun sets today, Santa Monicans should be drinking tap water with a little extra fluoride added in to help protect those pearly whites.
The Metropolitan Water District, the regional agency that supplies roughly 90 percent of Santa Monica’s drinking water, plans to fluoridate water at its Joseph Jensen Treatment Plant this morning. The plant, located in Granada Hills, supplies areas in the San Fernando Valley, Ventura County, West Los Angeles, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and Santa Monica.
“Santa Monicans should be getting (added fluoride) sometime in the late afternoon,” said Edgar G. Dymally, senior environmental specialist in water quality for MWD. “It takes about six hours from the time we turn the facility on and start the pumps. It takes another five to six hours for the water to get down to the extremities of the distribution system and Santa Monica is at the far end.”
About.2 to.4 milligrams of fluoride occur naturally in drinking water. The MWD and City Hall plan to bump that up to.7 to.8 milligrams per liter, which they believe is safe and beneficial. City staff will add fluoride to the remaining 10 percent of water supplied to residents and local businesses from a well underneath San Vicente Boulevard, city officials said.
Some residents are not pleased. They believe adding fluoride to drinking water creates a health hazard. They believe that too much fluoride can be dangerous, particularly for young babies that get most of their nutrition from powdered or liquid infant formula mixed with tap water.
The American Dental Association, which endorses fluoridation for the vast majority of Americans, issued a warning to parents last year warning them to watch their child’s fluoride intake so that they do not develop dental fluorisis — a defect of the teeth which can result in staining or corrosion of the enamel.
Those opposed to fluoridation also believe there is a link between fluoride and increased levels of cancer, bone fractures and has adverse effects on the immune system, kidneys, digestive system and reproductive system.
“Our efforts to expose and bring to justice this travesty called ‘water fluoridation’ are far from over,” said Gene Burke, founder and director of Santa Monicans for Safe Drinking Water. “Congressional under-oath investigations and good courtrooms, many of us contend, are desperately needed in order to cut through this smokescreen that politics and propaganda — not science — have produced.”
MWD officials said the level of fluoride to be added is safe for consumption. Those who do not want to drink from the tap can purchase bottled water, a filter or reverse osmosis device. There have been calls by users for the MWD to supply filters for ratepayers.
“There are some folks who have expressed concerns based on nonscientific information,” Dymally said. “All we can say is that it is a perfectly safe, proactive and cost effective measure that reduces cavities and protects teeth. We had an unprecedented request from six public health officials who service the areas we cover to do this.”
Fluoridation of public water supplies for the purpose of prevention of cavities first occurred in this country in 1945 in the community of Grand Rapids, Mich. By the early ‘90s, 70 percent of large American cities and 56 percent of the entire U.S. population were served by water systems con-
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 26, 2007. Read the original PDF.