Yorktown to Hold Fluoride Public Hearing on Oct. 15

YORKTOWN, N.Y.—The Yorktown Town Board will hold a public hearing on fluoridation on Oct. 15 after Supervisor Ed. Lachterman decided to stop adding it to the water supply late last month.

The move is said to be a “pause” while the Town Board decides how to move forward with a permanent policy.

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On Sept. 26, Supervisor Ed Lachterman reversed an earlier decision to resume the long-delayed return of fluoride in Yorktown’s water supply, which had drawn criticism from a small but vocal group of residents who believe it is harmful.

Lachterman decision to suspend fluoridation—just weeks after resuming it—came in response to a Sept. 24 ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen that ordered the EPA to strengthen its regulation of fluoride in drinking water. In his ruling, the federal judge said high levels of fluoride may pose an “unreasonable risk” to children’s intellectual development.

In a press release announcing the suspension, Lachterman cited “long-standing concerns expressed by many Yorktown residents” and called suspending fluoridation “a precautionary measure.”

“Our priority is the safety and well-being of our community, and we believe it is prudent to pause fluoridation to further assess its potential impacts,” he said in the release.

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He elaborated on those views at the Oct. 1 Town Board meeting, where the pause drew support from most of his Town Board colleagues and members of the audience.

“Studies and research—and one of them from Harvard University, as well as others—shows a build-up of fluoride and too much fluoridation actually causes a loss of IQ in children,” Lachterman said.

In his court ruling, Chen acknowledged uncertainty over whether typical fluoride levels are lowering children’s IQs, but cited what he called growing scientific evidence of significant risk. He ordered the EPA to take action, though without specifying measures.

A Brief Return

The Northern Westchester Joint Water Works resumed adding fluoride to the Yorktown water supply in August for the first time in seven years. (Yorktown had fluoridated water for decades going back to the 1960s before the stoppage, blamed at the time on obsolete equipment.) The resumption of fluoridation followed upgrades to the Amawalk and Catskill Treatment Plants to meet more rigid health and safety requirements.

Previously, the town received a $940,000 grant from the New York State Department of Health to help complete the fluoridation project, raising concerns about whether the town would have to either continue fluoridation or return the money. Should the fluoridation pause turn into a permanent stoppage, Lachterman said the town’s potential obligation to return all or part of the grant would be “up to the governing agency.”

“We used the grant money for what it was intended for and we even had to contribute town funds to complete the job,” Lachterman told Yorktown News after the meeting. “We even restarted the fluoride, which was the intended use of the grant. I would hope that the governing agencies would understand the decision to worry about the safety of our most vulnerable population.”

Lachterman said the decision to pause fluoridation comes down to safety and that it remains to be decided whether the pause will become a permanent stop.

“Is the town stopping of fluoride, forever? I don’t know. Let’s see what happens,” Lachterman said. “I think that it behooves us when we have our most vulnerable population in our children, our pregnant moms, to stop, to say wait–let’s let this research work out; let’s see what happens.”

After the meeting, Lachterman said that if there is another court ruling, the decision to resume fluoridation would “depend on the ruling,” adding, “In this one, the EPA was told to go back to the science and quantify the amounts consumed.”

Lachterman said he “will wait to see if they can make that happen.”

The suspension of fluoridation in Yorktown also affects Somers residents using the same water supply. Lachterman said he spoke with the Somers Supervisor Rob Scorrano before making the decision.

Lachterman also had the backing of fellow Republicans on the Town Board.

“I think it’s prudent that we pause it and we add language to the town code that will give us the option to unpause it or keep it paused pending the outcome,” said Councilman Sergio Esposito, adding that Lachterman consulted him before making the decision. “I think you have to err on the side of caution.

The Town Board’s lone Democrat, Susan Siegel spoke in favor of fluoridation and said, unlike Esposito, she was not consulted on the decision to pause.

“Based on the scientific evidence—there is no need for a local law that would allow this board to permanently shut down the system,” she said.

Of the five Town Board members, Siegel was alone in expressing full support for fluoridation, which proponents say strengthens teeth and reduces cavities. Her comments drew pushback from both audience and fellow Town Board members.

Siegel said there was “no basis for the shutdown of the fluoride done unilaterally last week.” Then she read a statement from dentist Dr. Carl Tegtmeier, former chair of the New York State Dental Association’s Council on Dental Health Planning and Hospital Dentistry, which said, “At present Yorktown is in violation of the NYS Public Health Law 1100-A on Fluoridation for the discontinuance of Community Water Fluoridation (CWF) and not adhering to the law’s requirements in doing so.”

“First and most important, the public needs to know that last week’s shutdown was illegal because it violated … public health law,” Siegel added.

Lachterman took issue with health professionals like Tegtmeier trying to dictate public policy.

“The EPA never said in any of their testimony that it’s safe…There is actually a risk,” Lachterman said. “We can talk about the public health law—if they want to come in and arrest me for it, or if the public wants to vote me out for it…but I was elected to make decisions for them as the executive of the town.”

Speaking during the public comment period, resident Larry Kilian urged both sides to express their views respectfully but questioned whether the Town Board had the expertise to make an informed decision about fluoride.

“I would hope that every one of you would try harder to celebrate and welcome differences of opinion and not be whatever and reacting when some of you are talking,” he said. “I don’t think you’re qualified to make a decision … the decision about fluoride should be left to agencies with more expertise than a Town Board...there should be a limit on how long you can pause it.”

Pause and Effect

While Lachterman emphasized the fluoride pause was designed to give the town time to decide on a longer-term policy, Councilwoman Luciana Haughwout said her mind is already made up.

“I’ve done my own homework on why I’m against fluoride, and my answer is that the cons of what it can do outweigh the pros, and I can’t get my 8-year-old to brush his teeth,” she said. “Fluoride or no fluoride, I am not going to control how much water they drink. So for me, it’s a hard stop.”

Resident Olimpia Goci said she draws the line at the word “risk,” and also called for “a hard stop.”

“You can choose to use fluoride toothpaste, mouthwash, or even fluoride floss,” she said. “That should be a personal choice, not something the public is forced to ingest.”

Resident Melanie Ryan—who is an administrator of the 150-member Facebook group “Pure Water, Pure Choice: Yorktown Against Fluoride!”—read from the book, “The Fluoride Deception” and accused the EPA of corruption and being in cahoots with drug manufacturers.

“If you take some time to read some books you might be educated about whether or not fluoride is good for us or not,” Ryan said. “I am very much in support of your decision to pause this poisoning, because that’s what it is.

“We cannot rely on our federal government or EPA to do the right thing,” she added. “They are working for the pharmaceutical industry and the corruption is deep. It is up to us local citizens and officials to make changes on the local level. Become active, we did it together!”

After the meeting, Siegel told Yorktown News that many of the points raised in opposition to fluoride could be “disputed [or] addressed.” She also criticized the board for not listening to or “reaching out to public health professionals.”

Siegel said the board is reacting to a “small but loud activist group promoting an unsubstantiated risk based on faulty science.”

The board voted 4-1, with Siegel in opposition, to schedule a public hearing at its Tuesday, Oct. 15 meeting over proposed changes to the town code around fluoridation.

Siegel said two weeks was not enough time and called on fluoride supporters to show up at the hearing.

Lachterman told Yorktown News that the issue has been referred out for public comment, which will be added to the record. In the meantime, he said, the board members will continue their research and “start to formulate the path they would like to take.”

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