AUBURN - Michael Easley leaned forward in a light-hearted, conspiratorial whisper to an audience of 55 dentists, dental hygienists, physicians and other health professionals.
“Did you know ice cream was a chemical byproduct of the milk industry?” the bearded men asked as he flicked his thumb over a trigger for his Powerpoint presentation.
Easley, a dentist by training and the president of the National Center for Fluoridation, parodied the efforts of anti-fluoridation activists who Easley said describe the addition of fluoride as a poisonous byproduct that can cause serious health problems like cancer. Proponents of fluoridation say that there are no harmful impacts of its addition to public water and only benefits communities with a reduction of tooth decay.
Those anti-fluoridation efforts that have been so extreme, Easley said, that he needed a police escort to safely leave a Johnstown, Fulton County, water board meeting where several anti-fluoridation activists booed down his presentation.
Easley was the keynote speaker during a Cayuga County Dental Society and Cayuga Community Health Network meeting Tuesday organized following a recent flurry of media interest in the high rate of cavities in Cayuga County, which is without fluoridate water, in comparison to other counties that do have fluoridated water.
The Cayuga County Board of Health unanimously passed a resolution in the support of the fluoridation of the county's public water system Tuesday, saying fluoridated public water is a safe and effective way to prevent tooth decay. Cayuga County is only one of six counties in the region without fluoridated public water, but has the highest percentage of cavities. About 150 water systems in the state add fluoride to their water and another 800 water systems have fluoridated water by purchasing water from those 150 original systems.
No legitimate professional organization opposes fluoridation of water, except “groups who believe that fluoridation is a conspiracy,” said Easley, describing opponents as typically conservative with no professional credibility.
They achieve success by planting enough doubt in the public that there might be something wrong with fluoridated water, Easley said.
He said anti-fluoridation opponents will ask public officials to stay neutral or ask for a public referendum. A citywide referendum will be required to change the city's charter, which forbids adding fluoride to the water supply. Efforts to fluoridate water in the early 1970s, 1988 and 1997 were all unsuccessful.
“We think its benefit to our children and long overdue,” said retired pediatrician Dr. Henry Romano, who attended the meeting and last spearheaded a campaign to fluoridate the city's water after a 1990s study showed 39 to 40 percent of Auburn schoolchildren had cavities..
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
Easley, a dentist by training and the president of the National Center for Fluoridation, parodied the efforts of anti-fluoridation activists who Easley said describe the addition of fluoride as a poisonous byproduct that can cause serious health problems like cancer. Proponents of fluoridation say that there are no harmful impacts of its addition to public water and only benefits communities with a reduction of tooth decay.
Those anti-fluoridation efforts that have been so extreme, Easley said, that he needed a police escort to safely leave a Johnstown, Fulton County, water board meeting where several anti-fluoridation activists booed down his presentation.
Easley was the keynote speaker during a Cayuga County Dental Society and Cayuga Community Health Network meeting Tuesday organized following a recent flurry of media interest in the high rate of cavities in Cayuga County, which is without fluoridate water, in comparison to other counties that do have fluoridated water.
The Cayuga County Board of Health unanimously passed a resolution in the support of the fluoridation of the county's public water system Tuesday, saying fluoridated public water is a safe and effective way to prevent tooth decay. Cayuga County is only one of six counties in the region without fluoridated public water, but has the highest percentage of cavities. About 150 water systems in the state add fluoride to their water and another 800 water systems have fluoridated water by purchasing water from those 150 original systems.
No legitimate professional organization opposes fluoridation of water, except “groups who believe that fluoridation is a conspiracy,” said Easley, describing opponents as typically conservative with no professional credibility.
They achieve success by planting enough doubt in the public that there might be something wrong with fluoridated water, Easley said.
He said anti-fluoridation opponents will ask public officials to stay neutral or ask for a public referendum. A citywide referendum will be required to change the city's charter, which forbids adding fluoride to the water supply. Efforts to fluoridate water in the early 1970s, 1988 and 1997 were all unsuccessful.
“We think its benefit to our children and long overdue,” said retired pediatrician Dr. Henry Romano, who attended the meeting and last spearheaded a campaign to fluoridate the city's water after a 1990s study showed 39 to 40 percent of Auburn schoolchildren had cavities..
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
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