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55 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, March 11, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 24, 2005 Fluoridation plan hard to swallow for some, easy for others By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune A local proponent of fluoridating Medford’s Big Butte Springs water supply was pleased with the progress of the bill to require statewide implementation. "That would be the easy thing. That would be the smart thing," said Lee Murdoch, a Medford pediatrician who has worked to get a fluoridation measure before Medford’s voters. Local opponents, however, decried the House Water Committee’s decision. "It marks new territory where a group of lay people will elect to mass-medicate all the citizens of Oregon in communities of more than 10,000 for the purpose of preventing tooth decay," said Nick Dienel, a Medford cardiologist. Murdoch and Dienel both said the state debate likely will turn on the philosophical issue of adding medicine to the public water supply, not the efficacy of fluoride in preventing decay. Advertisement "Oregonians are independent," Murdoch noted. Fluoride is not a drug, but rather a naturally occurring element of the Earth’s crust. However, fluoridated water would expose those who drink it to more fluoride than they would normally otherwise ingest. Murdoch said he hoped politicians and the public would realize that ingesting fluoride through water is better than other options. "The thing that’s been hard for people to, not swallow, but to understand, is that the constant bathing of your teeth in water that has fluoride in it is better than a pill once a day," he said. Dienel disagreed and said that people who wanted fluoride in their diets would be free to add it themselves. Local dentists, doctors and other professionals have been working to put the question of fluoridation on a Medford city ballot for nearly two years. Momentum stalled for the effort to gather about 3,600 signatures required to put the issue to a city vote. "We were to the point of going door-to-door and paying someone to do it," Murdoch said. A statewide mandate would make such an effort moot, he added. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s