Plans to fluoridate Albany's drinking water move ahead as a citizens group opposed to fluoridation calls for more transparency from city hall.
Albany's lack of fluoridated water historically was due to political preferences, particularly from the Democratic Party and long-time Mayor Erastus Corning. The issue was discussed in the 1990s but didn’t resurface until recently. In February 2024, the Common Council voted unanimously to fluoridate the city water supply.
Safe Water Albany is criticizing a statement taxpayers received from the city water department entitled “Everything you need to know about the 2025 Fluoridation Project.”
The citizens group opposing fluoridation says the statement leaves out the most recent studies on fluoride’s health hazards and ineffectiveness in preventing cavities.
Safe Water Albany spokesperson Rick North cites scientific studies indicating that fluoridation is ineffective and can lead to lower IQs in children, along with a 2024 federal court ruling that did not ban or in any way limit the addition of fluoride to public drinking water supplies but considered fluoride to be an "unreasonable risk to human health." North's group is trying to convince Albany's Common Council to reverse its pro-fluoridation vote.
"Tom Hoey said that he and the council would withdraw that legislation to fluoridate if the lawsuit went against the EPA," North said. "The lawsuit went against the EPA, and he has not followed through on his promise. And then we're trying to get this through the General Services Committee, to have them bring it up and to allow three of our experts to present on both the legal front and the scientific front. And Jack Flynn said he would allow that to happen, because we never had this opportunity the first time around to present more than just a three minute public comment. And he said he would, and he has not."
8th ward councilor Jack Flynn did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 15th ward councilor Tom Hoey chairs the Public Safety Committee. He says the council will "take direction from the medical community," which locally has overwhelmingly favored fluoridation.
"It's been a while planning and getting things rolling. There was a state grant that we applied for a million dollars, which was, you know, we received. And there is construction going on right now at the water plant, and we hope to have the fluoridation online by the end of this year, 2025," said Hoey.
A Journal of the American Medical Association paper published in May says if community water fluoridation programs were discontinued across all states, American children would experience 25.4 million additional cavities over the next five years.
