My subject is water fluoridation and you’re looking at a picture of Tom Sawyer, hero of Mark Twain’s classic.  
    
                                          

Tom was a country boy growing up in the 1800’s. He was always getting into mischief and getting punished, and one day his punishment was to paint the fence.  There he stood, brush in hand, in despair of missing a day of fun with his friends, when of those very friends passed by on the way to the ole swimming hole and tauntingly asked Tom how he liked working on a beautiful Saturday.  And Tom got an idea.  He replied that he loved it.  It was great fun.  Well, his friend was skeptical, but after watching for a while, asked if he could try it.  Then another boy came by…and another…and another, and each one took his turn.  By the end of the day, not only had Tom’s friends painted the fence for him, he had even gotten them to pay him for the privilege.

So what’s Tom Sawyer got to do with fluoridation?

To appreciate that, you need to know where the fluoride comes from.  The fluoride in our drinking supply is not pharmaceutical grade like that used in toothpaste.  No.  The fluoride added to drinking water is a by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry.  It comes to us courtesy of the smokestack scrubbers of manufacturing plants in Florida.  And it comes contaminated with lead, aluminum and other toxic impurities.  If those fertilizer producers didn’t have access to our nation’s water supplies, they’d have to pay to dispose of all that material as hazardous waste. 

Today we’re a lot like Tom Sawyer’s friends.  We’re alleviating someone else’s punishment—the enormous cost of an industry’s toxic waste disposal—by taking on their waste, and paying for it to boot. 

How we got into such a grotesque position is of note.  Briefly, fluoride is essential to aluminum smelting and uranium enrichment.  It made possible the A-bomb and our country’s post-WWII prosperity.  But it also destroyed the health of workers exposed to it.  As that unpleasant fact began to surface in the news during the 1950’s, something had to be done and something was:  it took the form of an ingenious government- and industry-sponsored PR campaign to rehabilitate fluoride in the public mind.   That’s a story for another day. 

 Meanwhile, the city of Austin’s latest two-year contract with supplier Lucier Chemical Industries is for $1,175,000.  Now, to the extent that fluoride benefits teeth at all, it’s through topical application, better known as brushing.  And $1,175,000 will buy a lot of toothpaste.  Thank you.