Water getting fluoride

Nearly three years after Salt Lake County voters said they want it, fluoride is being added to the public culinary water supply, starting today.

The big beneficiaries will be small children whose permanent teeth are developing, according to health officials and pediatric dentists, who lent strong support to voter initiative efforts to have the element added to drinking water.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls addition of fluoride to drinking water one of the top 10 accomplishments of public health in the past century.

"Having access to fluoridated water is the most effective and efficient means of reducing dental caries and disease in the population," said Royal DeLegge, director of environmental health for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department.

Salt Lake County water will follow the CDC recommendation of 0.9 to 1.0 parts fluoride per million, with the dose very carefully controlled, then monitored in real-time, with both human oversight and automatic monitoring equipment, DeLegge said.

Brigham City and Helper have had fluoridated water for some time; Davis County began adding it to its water this summer. Hill Air Force Base also has fluoridated water, a mandate set by the federal government for its bases worldwide.

For months, the water districts that will deliver fluoride in culinary water have been installing equipment, including the holding reservoir, dosing mechanism and monitoring mechanism to see the recommended dose is not exceeded, said DeLegge.

In Salt Lake County, about 16 water districts are involved. Regulation requires it be added to the water supply of all cities with a population of more than 3,300 people, so that means more than 99 percent of the county population will received fluoridated water. But they won't all get it instantaneously Wednesday morning. The fluoride takes some time to work its way through the entire volume of water.

When children who are still forming permanent teeth ingest fluoridated water, they develop stronger tooth enamel, said Layton dentist S. Dale Hibbert, president of the Utah Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. They benefit most from birth to age 9.

Children must drink two to four cups of water each day to get the maximum teeth-strengthening ben—

efit, he said.