Water Agency OKs Fluoride

Fluoride will be added to the drinking water used by millions of people across Southern California under a plan approved Tuesday by the Metropolitan Water District.

Within three years, the water agency plans to mix the cavity-fighting substance into all water it imports into the region. Although some cities such as Los Angeles and Long Beach already add fluoride to their water supply, many other communities do not -- including wide portions of Orange, Ventura and San Diego counties.

The decision was praised by health advocates as a major step forward in protecting the public -- especially children -- against tooth decay. But others, including officials from some of the local water districts that purchase water from the MWD, said it needlessly puts them in the dental business.

“What’s next? Putting birth control pills in” water? asked Trudy Ohlig-Hall, a director of the Mesa Consolidated Water District in Orange County. “We are not against fluoridation, but we are not in the dental business. We are in the water business.”

Adding fluoride to water is a much-debated public health issue. In the 1960s, some critics suggested that fluoridation was part of a communist plot. More recently, the debate has centered on whether putting fluoride in water is tantamount to medicating people against their will. Some people say the efforts are fruitless because so many Southern Californians drink only bottled water.

Nationwide, about two-thirds of the population live in areas that get fluoridated water, and at least 42 of the largest 50 cities in the United States are fluoridated -- including Washington D.C., San Francisco and New York, which has had the substance added to its water for more than 40 years. California has long lagged behind the rest of the country, health and water officials said.

“This is probably the most effective and simple way to improve the health of people,” said Dr. Eugene Sekiguchi, president-elect of the American Dental Assn. and an associate dean of the USC School of Dentistry.

The MWD buys and sells water to 26 water agencies in Southern California, which in turn deliver the water to households. The amount of fluoridated water that reaches customers will be determined by how much MWD water those agencies blend with their own local supplies. The more they blend, the less fluoride customers of those agencies will receive.

A 1995 bill signed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson mandated that water agencies with more than 10,000 customers begin putting fluoride in their water, provided that funding was available.

Nonetheless, the issue languished until a December 2001 MWD board meeting, when health officials from the six counties served by the agency began pushing the fluoride issue again.

“The dental people contacted me, and I helped push it,” said Glen Peterson, an MWD board member who represents the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Calabasas. “The board saw the wisdom of it. The people from all the counties are lucky. Their health is going to be better.”

After more than 13 months of study, the board finally approved the move Tuesday. About 15 speakers were in favor of the plan, three against.

The MWD said the plan will cost $5 million to implement and $2 million annually to maintain. Agency officials said that not all the money has been secured and that the funds will likely come from a variety of sources, including public health foundations.