Southern Orange County residents are concerned about fluoride in the water after the Orange Water and Sewer Authority water treatment plant shut down earlier this month after an accidental release of too much fluoride into the water.

However, fluoride in water isn’t so bad for you, if it’s a healthy level of it, according to Tim Wright. He’s the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the UNC School of Dentistry. He said in the mid-1900s, scientists tested populations that had low dental disease rates in the United States.

“Through some detective work and snooping, they found out that it was associated with differences in the amount of fluoride in the water that was naturally occurring,” he said. “Based on the types of rocks and aquifer that the water was derived from.”

Wright said after that discovery, many places in the US began including fluoride in the water supply to prevent tooth decay. But some were unhappy because of human rights concerns, and now he said people are afraid that fluoride could lead to other diseases. However, Wright said those fears have no proof.

“For years people have done that and looked at fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities and have consistently come up short of any sound scientific evidence showing that anything from bone cancer to sarcoma,” he said. “[Sarcoma] was a big one for a while and that was dispelled. Even the prevalence of children being born with Trisomy 21 or Down syndrome, or other kind of birth defects, those were dispelled.”

And Wright said for people who don’t want fluoride in their drinking water, for whatever the reason, there are options to remove it or buy bottled water without it.

But he said if fluoride is included in the water it can be a benefit for the whole community.

“It’s accessible if you don’t want to have exposure to it,” Wright said. “For those people who benefit, that’s another benefit, anybody who’s on the water system regardless of their financial income or their ability to gain access to other types of treatments, gets that benefit. So it crosses all socioeconomic boundaries.”

Wright said tooth decay is the most prevalent disease in the country. And if fluoride is continued to be inexpensively added to the water supply, it can cure up to 30 percent of tooth decay cases.

“I like to eat so I like having teeth,” he said. “I think they’re quite handy. And they look nice, and all the benefits you get from good oral health so, there’s a lot of upsides to it.”

OWASA will determine at a later date whether or not the organization will continue to add fluoride to the water supply.

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