Safe and Effective! Safe and Effective. Safe and Effective! Safe and Effective!
                                                    

The Public Health and Human Services Committee of November 22 went off pretty much as expected.  A bevvy of invited  dentists—under pressure from the president of their local organization—showed up to extol water fluoridation:  they became the first living souls (with the exception of city staff) to speak in favor of the chemical additive in Fluoride Free Austin’s three-plus years of advocacy.
  
Because the outcome was so predictable—and the date so close to Thanksgiving, we didn’t promote this event as vigorously as we have some in the past.  Still, the turnout of 40-50 supporters—just two days before a major holiday, was gratifying.  The dentists had their own little cheering section, consisting of themselves, and the Austin/Travis County staff were there as usual, ready, willing and able to recite their lines.

Unlike last month’s meeting, where fluoride was at the top of the agenda, this time our issue was the last item.  Sitting through what came before was instructive.  Dr. Philip Huang, Austin Travis County Health & Human Services Department chief medical officer and official gatekeeper/enforcer of CDC fluoridation "best practices" talked about the latest  $1 million-plus CDC grant he's snagged for the city, as well as the previous $7.5 million one, just ending.  Another grant administrator type followed him in due course, tossing around bureaucratese terms like "partnering" with abandon before a starry-eyed Committee.  Watching these performances makes it clear why City Council finds issues like water fluoridation so boring .  No grant money - what fun is that?  As if we didn't already know.

Finally our turn came.  We had been told, unofficially, that each side would be given 30 minutes for its speakers and that there would probably be no formal pro-fluoride presentation.  Wrong on both counts.  Huang was allotted time to run through his standard CDC-endorsed monologue, accompanied on this occasion by Carlos Rivera, the newly-appointed (last August) director of the Austin-Travis County Health & Human Services Department.  Rivera, clearly out of his depth, stumbled through his part using outdated slides.  Their embarrassing performances can be viewed here, in Part 1:


                         
                                     Part 1                                                   Part 2

Bert Lumbreras, one of Austin's myriad assistant city managers - associated with Human Services - and Jane Burazer of the Austin Water Utility also weighed in toward the end.  But the main spotlight belonged to Huang and Rivera.  

Next came citizens' communication (Part 1 & Part 2).  Because of the time  allotted to the pro-fluoridation presentation, each side received only a total of 15 minutes instead of the promised 30.  The issue of a water bill warning against mixing infant formula with fluoridated tapwater was still on the table.  Both the dentists and the Public Health and Human Services staff strongly opposed any warning labeled as such.  They did accept the distribution to a wider audience of fluoride 
"information" currently posted on the city's websites.  That advisory - cleverly crafted by Dr. Huang - amounts to an endorsement of fluoride for infants.  I pointed this out during my 3-minute talk.  Dr. Huang defended his word choice using obsolete information.  Drs. Laura Pressley and Griffin Cole, Carol Vander Stoep, RDH and Mike Ford also spoke for Fluoride Free Austin, and five dental professionals voiced the ever-predictable opposition.

THE UPSHOT:  a recommendation by city staff to disseminate the city website's misleading message more widely - in English and Spanish - through means ranging from mailouts to community bulletin boards. The Committee, ever eager to appear progresive, seized upon the occasion to vote that staff prepare a resolution to bring before the full Council for consideration.

Of course all this posturing proved nothing, since the language of the "information" is unacceptable.  Still, it will be fun to see if, when and how the full Council deals with the proposal.