A quiet town worker reduce fluoride The Vermont community’s drinking water has for years resigned – and asserts that water levels are actually much lower than believed.
Richmond water company director Kendall Chamberlin revealed in his five-page resignation letter, filed Monday, that fluoride levels have not been within the range of state recommendations for more than a decade. — rather than nearly four years, as the state recently revealed.
Chamberlin said in his letter – in language that sometimes echoes unfounded reports that have spread online in recent years – that he does not think the current fluoridation policy is legally required. logical or scientifically sound, and in his opinion pose “unacceptable risks to public health.”
“I cannot in good conscience be a party to this,” he wrote.
Chamberlin writes that he has never received a negative work review, has accurately measured fluoride levels in the water day by day, and has provided monthly written reports approved and signed by a manager. town management and submitted to two state agencies.
He argues that fluoridation is voluntary and the amount is not required.
While fluoridation of municipal water is voluntary, towns must maintain levels within state recommendations and submit monthly reports to the state Department of Health, according to state officials.
The Vermont Health Department did not immediately return an email seeking comment on Chamberlin’s resignation or his new assertions about the time period when fluoride concentrations were above legal limits.
Next month discover The town of Richmond said two weeks ago that the amount of fluoride added to its water was half of what is recommended by federal and state agencies, the town of Richmond said two weeks ago it would raise levels in the range. vi allows.
Initial news that fluoride had been declining for nearly four years – a much shorter time than Chamberlin revealed in his resignation letter – shocked some residents and area doctors, who raised concerns. about misinformation, oral health, and government transparency, and say it’s not. a decision to be made by Chamberlin alone.
The addition of fluoride to public drinking water systems has been routine in communities across the United States since the 1940s and 1950s. Many municipalities of the United States and other countries do not fluoridate water because for many reasons, including deprecation, feasibility and possibility of obtaining fluorine in other ways.
Critics assert that the health effects of fluoride are not fully known and that adding it to municipal water could turn out to be an undesirable drug; Some communities in recent years have stopped doing this.
The American Dental Association notes on its website that fluoride — along with life-giving substances like salt, iron, and oxygen — can actually be toxic in large doses.
But within the recommended amount, fluoride in water reduces tooth decay or cavities by about 25%, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported in 2018 that 73% of the U.S. population is served by this system. The water system has enough fluoride to protect teeth.
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