Residents of Albany, the capital metropolis of New York State, will profit from fluoride in water. The municipality begins to fluoridate its faucet water subsequent yr. The Frequent Council in Albany voted 12-0 final month in favor of the proposal, and the mayor has signed the measure. This victory for public well being is a very long time in coming.
Oral well being advocates have tried for many years to persuade metropolis officers to provoke water fluoridation. Though the roadblock was typically the Frequent Council, the town’s mayors — one in every of whom known as fluoridation “un-American.” — have opposed this frequent sense public well being apply.
As a number of advocates in Albany identified, there’s in all probability no public well being measure that’s extra American than neighborhood water fluoridation. The primary fluoridation research passed off within the U.S. At the moment roughly two-thirds of the nation has entry to faucet water with fluoride.
Dr. Elizabeth Whalen, the previous well being commissioner of Albany County, was one of many main advocates for water fluoridation. In remarks to the Frequent Council, she known as Albany “an unlucky outlier”. It’s the solely main metropolis in New York that has by no means supplied fluoridated water to its residents.
In conversations with council members, Dr. Whalen highlighted a 2010 research on tooth decay in New York State. This research in contrast the Medicaid prices of treating tooth decay in counties that had been and weren’t fluoridated. The variety of decay-related procedures for youngsters in much less fluoridated counties was 33% larger than in predominantly fluoridated counties.
“Our surrounding cities together with Troy and Schenectady benefit from fluoride within the water provide,” Dr. Whalen stated. “And we all know that the dental well being of youngsters on Medicaid is best in these cities than that of our [Albany] youngsters on Medicaid.”
Though a lot of the Council’s dialogue targeted on its advantages to youngsters, it’s price noting that fluoride reduces tooth decay in adults too. 75+ years of expertise in communities all throughout America has supplied proof of the great that fluoride can do. It’s the most cost-effective methodology of delivering fluoride to all members of the neighborhood no matter age, academic attainment, or revenue degree, and that advantages everybody.
