[ OUR OPINION ]
Teeth aren’t only things
rotten in state SenateINSTEAD of confronting another debate about fluoridating water in Hawaii, legislative leaders have decided to stifle the Democratic process through manipulating the rules that govern how bills are heard. The end-run around their own canons provides another example of how elected officials who are supposedly representing voters' interests break the public trust through sneaky maneuvers on camouflaged measures.
THE ISSUE Fluoridation would be prohibited under a bill set for legislative approval.
In another of its "fast-track" measures, the Legislature is ready to clear a bill that would prohibit additives in drinking water, a proposal that hardly sounds objectionable. But the effect would be to head off fluoridation, a common practice that prevents tooth decay.
Fluoride is added to water supplies in most communities across the country, but, except on military bases, Hawaii's water remains unfluoridated. As a result, children here have the highest rate of tooth decay in the United States; those ages 5-9 have more than twice the national average. The use of fluoride has cut oral health care costs by about $40 billion during the past 40 years and has been used safely for more than half a century.
A small number of individuals and groups have successfully blocked the program in Hawaii. In the late 1980s, contentious hearings ended with the Senate rejecting fluoridation, and again in 1999. This time, instead of forwarding a bill to revisit the issue, the tactic was to keep the word "fluoride" off the pages and to advance a more general measure that seemed benign.
Under legislative rules, the bill ordinarily would have been assigned to House and Senate health committees. However, the House panel chairman, Dennis Arakaki, has been an advocate for fluoridation and the Senate chairwoman, Rosalyn Baker, believes the matter should be left to the counties to decide. The leadership of the Senate apparently wanted clear sailing, and the bill was shuttled to the water committees where it could fly below the radar. Indeed, the point was to avoid discussion of fluoridation and to move the measure through before the new Lingle administration, still gaining its footing, could weigh in.
As Senate water panel chairman Lorraine Inouye said, the bill was designed to "free Hawaii from periodic threats of mandatory community fluoridation."
Why Inouye sees fluoridation as a threat is puzzling. At one time, ultraconservatives fatuously claimed that fluoridation was a communist plot to poison Americans. Today's opponents contend that fluoride makes water unsafe to drink, citing supposed risks of cancer and osteoporosis.
To the contrary, long-term comprehensive studies have found no evidence of such risks. The only adverse effect was a potential for mottling of teeth, a condition that can be corrected cosmetically. In truth, fluoride occurs naturally in all water sources and fluoridation consists of increasing its presence to an optimum level to prevent tooth decay -- about a tablespoon for every 4,000 gallons. In 1999, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized community water fluoridation as one of the 10 great public achievements of the 20th century.
Through legislative rules, Arakaki may be able to have the bill re-assigned to his committee for a hearing to discuss the merits of fluoridation. We urge him to do so. Hawaii's children deserve the oral health benefits the rest of the nation's youngsters enjoy.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4748; mpoole@starbulletin.com
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