My neighbors are intelligent people. Most think adding fluoride to Portland's water makes sense and is long overdue. However, one of these respected neighbors is strongly opposed to doing anything that, in her view, contaminates what is otherwise pure, especially our water and air. This caused me to re-examine the evidence more closely.



Following my neighbor's advice, I read Clean Water Portland's website. This led to a number of other sources that discussed the suspected biological effects of water additives, such as mental impairments and other "scientific" evidence of fluoride dangers. Then, to be fair, I did an equal amount of due diligence by studying the information in favor of water fluoridation.



Here's what I found: In the case of those who fear fluoridation, ideology trumps science. Under a harsh light, the arguments against fluoridation are fragile and largely unsupported by any standard scientific methods or study results. The same is not true for the arguments by those who desire fluoridated water. The overwhelming evidence from all branches of informed science and experiential data supports appropriate levels of fluoride in water for dental health. There seems to be, however, an interesting, and perhaps not too surprising, relationship between those who strongly oppose fluoridated water and those who opposed inoculation to combat childhood diseases. Now that does raise some interesting questions.



Is this one of the outcomes of the hollowing out of public school science education? Perhaps everything is connected to everything else after all.



John Jones

Beaverton



