Town Meeting Day voters in Rutland will weigh in on whether they want the city to continue adding fluoride to municipal water.
Rutland began fluoridating its water in 1983. The U.S. Surgeon General calls it one of the most practical, cost-effective, equitable and safe measures communities can take to prevent tooth decay.
Opponents believe possible negative effects are being brushed aside, but dentists tout decades of improved oral health.
Robin Miller is Vermont's oral health director. She said dental care can be hard to access, and tooth decay is the most common chronic disease for American kids and adults. Low-income families are hit hardest.
“Access to dental care is difficult for many people, especially right now, and community water fluoridation may be one of the only preventative dental benefits that some people are getting," Miller said. "And this is a way to provide the decay prevention for everyone in the community regardless of age, race or income level.”
But Rutland resident Jack Crowther has been a longtime critic.
“You’re putting a drug, a medicine, in our water to treat tooth decay without the informed consent of the people,” Crowther said.
Currently, Rutland’s public works commissioner sets the water fluoridation policy for the city. Voters are being asked to change that and make the decision themselves.
In 2016, the last time it was on the ballot, voters strongly favored keeping fluoride in.
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