SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana county’s health officer is asking three towns that recently stopped adding fluoride to their drinking water to resume mixing the cavity-fighting additive into their water supplies.
St. Joseph County Health Officer Dr. Thomas Felger says Lakeville, North Liberty and Walkerton threaten to “reverse the tremendous advances in dental health” achieved over the past 60 years in using fluoride to reduce cavities.
The town councils in Lakeville, Walkerton and North Liberty voted this spring to stop adding fluoride to their drinking water. The towns made their moves independently and for different reasons.
For Lakeville and North Liberty, it was a matter of money. But Walkerton stopped adding fluoride to its drinking water because of fears of overexposure to the mineral.
