Fluoride foes meeting today

LAYTON — Fluoride opponents will hold their last public meeting today at the Layton Library, 155 N. Wasatch Drive, in their effort to get voters to approve the removal of fluoride from drinking water on Nov. 2.

Christine Harker, who has organized the 7 p.m. meeting at the library, said part of a video showing the effects of fluoride on people will be shown and Salt Lake dentist Marc Flack and Lorna Rosenstein of Water Watch of Utah will speak.

At previous meetings, Flack called fluoride a dental dogma and said other communities in the state are watching the Davis County vote.

Residents voted 52 percent to 48 percent for fluoridation in the 2000 election. Since then opponents have organized to get a revote of the issue on this year's general election ballot.

David Hansen, chairman of Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, worked to get the revote on the ballot. He said the video segment that will be shown is from Paul Connett's interview of BBC journalist Chris Bryson who wrote a book, "The Fluoride Deception," which purports to document the deceptions that occurred at the inception of water fluoridation.

One of the issues that will be discussed is the cost of fluoridating the water compared to pre-2000 election costs. Rosenstein said the Davis County Health Department estimated it would cost $1.38 per person per year to fluoridate the water, but cost reports since then have put the number at more than $4 per person per year.

Hansen said both sides of the fluoride debate have agreed to debate the matter before the election with the time and place to be announced.

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