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Fluoride in Miami-Dade’s consuming water is a significant political rivalry, as it’s statewide.
The difficulty got here to a head when county commissioners voted to take away fluoride from the water system in an 8-2 vote April 1, a choice that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava vetoed 10 days later.
Within the third veto in her tenure, Mayor Levine Cava stated she deemed water fluoridation “important” to Miami’s public well being, a choice she reached after roundtable discussions with dentists, medical doctors, group leaders, involved mother and father, and different medical professionals.
Supplementing Miami’s consuming water since 1958, fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral important for not solely tooth and bone well being however for lowering the chance of great diseases, together with coronary heart illness and diabetes.
In line with Amanda Kinnick, interim director of the county’s Water and Sewer Division, fluoride already exists naturally in Miami’s consuming water, at a price of 0.2 milligrams per liter, or 0.2 components per million, which is beneath the beneficial optimum degree of 0.7 ppm. The remaining 0.5 ppm is provided by fluorosilicic acid, a fluoride product generally used for fluoridation. The product is delivered by tanker truck to the county’s three water remedy amenities and saved in designated tanks.
“It’s launched into the water by way of metering pumps, after which these pumps guarantee a exact movement price of the fluorides added, and that’s how we management the dosage, after which day by day laboratory evaluation of the completed water is performed to confirm the right fluoride focus. The division additionally submits month-to-month working reviews, which incorporates the fluoride ranges, to the Florida Division of Well being,” Ms. Kinnick informed Miami As we speak.
Concerning fluoride’s position in public well being, Mayor Levine Cava stated she decided that fluoridation was not solely protected however needed and important for Miami-Dade’s public well being. In roundtable discussions with medical professionals, she informed Miami As we speak, she concluded that the advantages of fluoridation outweighed its dangers.
“For me, it was a form of no-brainer that we had fluoride within the water,” the mayor stated. “I by no means understood there was any controversy related to it, however I didn’t wish to simply go on rumor … so I convened two totally different roundtables with dental consultants, group leaders, involved mother and father, and realized a lot extra about it that it grew to become very compelling, that if we take it out of the water we’re going to see some very unhealthy outcomes.”
Mayor Levine Cava cited examples of communities throughout the nation, together with Pinellas County, FL, that eliminated fluoride from their consuming water after which added it again after they discovered elevated dangers of dental decay.
Mayor Levine Cava additionally addressed issues concerning fluoridation, together with widespread claims and theories that fluoride is dangerous to the physique in numerous methods.
“What we realized from the consultants was that the research being cited weren’t scientifically validated research, they usually have been speaking about ranges of fluoride method past the minute quantity beneficial protected within the consuming water,” she stated.
“The chance is small in large quantities that we don’t even use.”
Mayor Levine Cava burdened the significance of fluoridation within the consuming water, encouraging the general public and the media to know the significance of fluoridation and to stay well-informed on the method, with the county publishing a truth sheet concerning the details and myths of the scenario.
“Many individuals do not need entry to primary dental care,” the mayor stated. “It’s very costly to go to the dentist. Individuals don’t essentially apply good oral hygiene. They don’t know, they haven’t had the schooling, they may not buy fluoridated toothpaste. They won’t even have the funds to buy toothpaste in any respect. We all know that within the Black group, the speed of cavities is twice the speed because the white group.
“We do have a niche in prevention,” the mayor stated, “however even with all of that, even when we now have prepared entry to dental care and preventative care, the consultants have been very clear that fluoridated water is a very significantly better and essential preventative measure.”