The Centers for Disease and Control touts fluoridation of tap water as “one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th Century.” But the last year has brought a wave of 21st Century opposition from some lawmakers and activists who cite new claims that the practice, intended to promote tooth health, is actually dangerous.
City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens) recently introduced legislation to ban fluoride in the city’s tap water. Dr. Gilbert Ross of the American Council on Science and Health and others experts say there is no danger – and argue that the claims are reminiscent of fluoride opponents of the 1960s who called putting the chemical in drinking water a communist plot.
