the Portland Mercury

Dinosaur Comic # 2944

Went to Pill Hill this morning, took the tram to the South Waterfront, had lunch at Bambuza Vietnam Kitchen. Picked up a free copy of the Portland Mercury, which is full of good stuff, like ONE DAY at a time by Ann Romano, and this bit on the Love NOTES page:

TOOTH OR CONSEQUENCES RE: "Officials Removed Fluoride from the Water in Calgary, Canada... and Guess What Happened?" [Blogtown, Feb 18], in which Wm. Steven Humphrey pointed out that since Calgary took fluoride out of its water in 2011, that city's children have had an average of "3.8 more cavities, extractions, and fillings." While Humphrey's post brought Portland's anti-fluoride science-phobes back out of the woodwork, we aren't going to print their comments.

As a dentist who graduated 40 years ago and has practiced in both a fluoridated city (Chicago, fluoridated since 1956), and non-fluoridated Portland, there is a definite difference on a community-wide basis.
Interesting facts in the defeat of the fluoridation vote back in May 2013: The Westside precincts (except out on rural Skyline Road) voted "yes" for fluoridation, and the higher socioeconomic status (SES) precincts on the Eastside—Grant Park, parts of Irvington, Alameda, Laurelhurst, and Eastmoreland—all voted "yes" too.
It was the lower SES communities—those that would have benefited from fluoridation—that voted "no." Those east of SE 82nd voted 80 percent against.
With only 42 percent of registered voters casting ballots in the election, there were 251,000 voters who did not weigh in on fluoridation.
The headquarters building on NE Sandy for the pro-fluoridation side is now a cannabis shop. The fluoride lovers have been replaced by the THC chemical lovers. BTW: No one who has consumed fluoridated water at the optimal level of 0.7 ppm has ever overdosed from fluoride. Can't say that for those consuming an edible chocolate.
posted by Kurt Ferre

Obviously fluoride isn't harmful. They want us to argue about it so that we don't talk about chemtrails.
posted by The Immortal Goon

And the Dinosaur Comic. Don't forget the Dinosaur Comic.