Good afternoon, Mayor Leffingwell and councilmembers.  Last month I spent an afternoon researching the musty back files of the Austin Statesman in an attempt to grasp the circumstances surrounding the city’s 1973 adoption of water fluoridation following two successive referenda in the previous two years.  It’s funny how everyone can remember something like the emergence of the Beatles from 45 years back, while local events ten years more recent seem like ancient history.  I’d hoped to plug gaps in the information already gained from reading the Council’s own archived agendas and meeting minutes.  But the yellowed clippings failed to deliver a clear picture.  The time machine I’d stepped into was mostly peopled by strangers I’d never heard of, much less met.  Still, there were nuggets of enlightenment.  I’ll list a few.

· Since fluoridation was introduced, the amount of water pumped annually has increased two and a half times.  The cost of chemicals has risen fifteen-fold.
 
· The city originally intended to fluoridate in 1950, and even purchased $6,288 worth of equipment.  They were dissuaded by a UT cancer researcher’s discovery that fluoride at 1 part per million greatly accelerates the growth of cancerous tissue.
 
· In the 1950’s, City Board of Health the Travis County Medical Society and the Texas Medical Association all recommended against community water fluoridation.

· During the 60’s, fluoridation was beavily promoted here by a wide range of interest groups including the Texas Health Department, the national PTA, the Jaycees, the Lions, and the quaintly-named Committee to Save Our Children’s Teeth.
 
· In the mysterious non-binding “referendum” of 1971, the vote was 3 to 1 pro-fluoridation.

· By the time of the 1972 binding referendum, that margin had shrunk to 4 to 3, with less than 15% of the voters participating.
 
· One who argued passionately against fluoridation was Austin’s own folk icon John Henry Faulk. Faulk knew fluoride would do nothing to improve the teeth of the economically disadvantaged, and he worried about issues of personal choice. He even tried to launch a program whereby people desiring fluoride could obtain it inexpensively from local pharmacists.

Faulk was a smart man—smart enough for us to name our main library after him.  He got it right.  And so should we.   Thank you.