Portland has been debating about fluoridating its water supplies for over 50 years. Last Tuesday, 60 percent of the people voted to reject fluoridation. Since 1956, the move has been thwarted four times.
In September 2012, the city council approved Ordinance 185612, a plan to add fluoride to the water supply of Portland come March 2014. Adding 0.7 ppm to the water source would have affected around 900,000 people including 19 other metropolitan areas in Oregon. Opponents of the move were quick to react. They gathered over 43,000 signatures and asked for a vote.
Almost But Not Enough
Last Tuesday, the proponents of water fluoridation in Portland seemed to have it all. Five of the city's commissioners voted in favor of the proposal. Portland was in the verge of fluoridating its water until the final count came in - the majority does not want fluoride in their water.
"There's a liberatarian component to Oregon politics... a kind of opposition to what the establishment might want," explained Oregon State University political science professor Bill Lunch during an interview with Oregon Live.
"Those who have more money, despite the kind of popular presumptions in this regard don't always win elections," the professor emphasized.
The votes were casted and the drinking water of Portland will remain not fluoridated.
Campaign: Dirtier than Plaque, Harder than Tartar
Leading to the debate, things even got dirty. Pro- and anti-fluoridating movements hurled accusations at each other. They pointed fingers that their yard signs were stolen by the other camp. Proponents were accused of the willingness to pollute the city's water supply while the opposing group was alleged to be insensitive to certain equity issues.
During the campaign, reports came out highlighting the "state of the tooth" of Oregon's people. There were data about tooth decay and cavity dropping in the last five years. The author of the study however declared that she was pressured by fluoridation proponents to present the facts in such manner.
The spending for such campaign was brutal at $1 million. It was over the top, considering it is just a city election. An article on Slate details that pro-fluoridation group Healthy Kinds, Healthy Portland was reported to have received $690,000 in cash and about $65,000 in supplies. Anti-fluoridation movement Clean Water Portland, on the other hand, got $194,000 cash and about $59,000 in supplies. The backing for such coalitions was also very diverse.
At the end of the day, Portland finds itself as the only city among the 30 most populous metros in the United States not to have a fluoridated water supply. The anti-fluoridating movements such as Clean Water Portland cheered while groups such as Upstream Health and Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland were clearly disappointed.
Portland has voted no to the idea of fluoridating its water supply several times. The city said no in a vote in the 1950s when other corners of the U.S. adopted the practice. They rejected the same idea in 1962. In 1978, the city approved fluoridating its water supply but scrapped it two years later.
The American Dental Association has endorsed fluoridating water supplies since the idea came up in the 1950s. The Centers for Disease Control and other health experts have described the practice as one of the most important accomplishments in public health in the 20th century. According to a report, about 72.5 percent of Americans reside in areas where drinking water is fluoridated.
