Ethan A. Huff
Natural News
December 27, 2011

(NaturalNews) Back in October, the Pinellas County, Fla., Commission voted 4 – 3 to stop adding artificial fluoride chemicals to the county’s municipal water supply, which serves roughly 700,000 residents (http://www.naturalnews.com/033801_f…). But now local health officials are suggesting that the county purchase a mobile fluoride van as an alternative, which would drive around town and administer fluoride and other conventional dental services directly to children.

Believe it or not, the St. Petersburg Timesreports that the Pinellas County Commission will soon vote on whether or not to purchase this mobile fluoride van for $532,339 in taxpayer funds, which is more than twice the $205,000 a year the county has been spending to purchase fluoride chemicals for the water supply. The Commission had asked the county’s Health and Human Services department to come up with a new way to use the $205,000 for other dental purposes, and the mobile fluoride van was their proposal.

“There’s no way I’m going to support a $532,000 item,” said Commissioner John Morroni, who was one of the members who voted in favor of ending water fluoridation. “You can buy a lot of toothpaste and help the dentists disburse it.”

Morroni is right, of course — if the county is persistent in making sure as many children as possible are fluoridated, there are much less expensive ways to distribute it than to purchase a half-million-dollar van. But the van’s proponents say it is the “most efficient option” for making sure children do not escape getting their fluoride.