As Trump administration officials seek to examine "new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water," some Albany Common Councilors are favoring a moratorium on the chemical's use in municipal drinking water.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is calling for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water. Fluoride is widely used in drinking water to prevent tooth decay, and the CDC says there is strong evidence the chemical is effective across populations.
But in recent years, a debate over fluoridation has been at the center of the culture war. Common Councilor Tom Hoey of the 15th Ward, who chairs the public safety committee, introduced legislation to fluoridate the city water supply in October 2023. Hoey said “We're still moving ahead with fluoridation.”
In February, the Albany Common Council voted unanimously to fluoridate the city's water supply.
Water Commissioner Joe Coffey says Albany's lack of fluoridated water historically was due to political preferences, particularly from the Democratic Party and long-time Mayor Erastus Corning. He says the issue was discussed in the 1990s but didn’t resurface until recently.
“It's been kind of on the burner for a while," said Coffey." We've certainly had a lot of public engagement. You know, last year when the local law came up on the common council, there was a lot of public hearings about it. They had environmental reviews, so at this point, you know, we're working with the health department to get the approvals needed.”
During last week’s council meeting, calls for a possible “hold” were entertained.
With the city water department bid for fluoridation set to go out this month, 7th ward Council member Sergio Adams, a Democrat, urged fellow-panelists to vote in favor of a moratorium.
“Why are we putting out a bid before we can educate the public as to what we just signed them up for? That's totally wrong, in my opinion. I think we should literally take a pause and a big step from this topic and put this in moratorium, in fact, to at least do our due diligence of informing the public about this. At the very least, if you're going to move forward with this, put some type of campaign together the city and educate the people as to how fluoridation will affect them, how it will affect pregnant women, how it affects young children, how it affects people with disabilities,” said Adams.
Coffey says a “tremendous amount of information” has already been made available. “Once the project goes out to bid there will be a lot of outreach both through mailers and through our social media. And certainly, if there’s opportunities that we get invited to, neighborhood associations, et cetera, we can certainly be present at those,” he said.
During public comment, Albany resident Tom Ellis accused councilors of continually sidestepping the issue, arguing that nearly all European nations have chosen to not fluoridate their water.
“In New York, we are required to consent to medical treatments we desire. And we also have the right to refuse unwanted medical treatments, and this is how it should be. However, with community water fluoridation, these two rights are taken away from us, the right to knowingly affirm and the right to refuse treatment, and they're taken away from people who would be drinking fluoridated water multiple times daily, perhaps for decades. Community water fluoridation is a forced medical treatment,” said Ellis.
Coffey said “Science has looked at it for years, that fluoride has been an effective prophylactic for prevention and dental caries, particularly in children."
Coffey says the goal is to have Albany water fluoridated in 2025.
Hoey, who remains supportive of the fluoridation plan, is wary about making changes to the its rollout during an election year. He also suggests, for the short term, keeping a close eye on developments at the federal level.
“We're going to wait and see what, you know, what the government says, you know, the federal government, CDC, we'll see what happens," Hoey said. "I mean, Mr. Kennedy also was against vaccinations, and we see what's going on right now in Texas and some other states with the measles outbreak, and now all of a sudden he's saying that, ‘well, maybe we need to do vaccines.’ We can't have these knee jerk reactions. Fluoridation in the water is 70% of the population in this country has it, and I think we're still moving in the right direction.”
Adams says the fluoridation issue is testing the council's mettle when it comes to the public’s freedom of choice.
“People in Albany, once they find this out, they're not going to be thrilled about this, let alone the fact that they're being robbed from having to make that decision for themselves.”
On May 7th, Utah becomes the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water.
