Wallkill Valley Times Jun. 14 2017 | Page 4

4 Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, June 14, 2017 Walden again considers dropping fluoride Continued from page 1 that. They’d make their presentations to the board and there would be a public hearing where hopefully the people who are actually using and drinking the water in the village will come out to voice their opinions. Then the board would take all of that information and make that decision.” During the public comment portion of last Tuesday’s board meeting, Meg Atwood of Orange County Community College argued in favor of keeping fluoride in Walden’s water. “There’d be no plausible scientific reason for you to stop fluoridating your water supply,” Atwood, who teaches dental hygiene at the school, told the board. She added that the funds expended on water fluoridation is money well spent considering the amount of cash the community saves on dental costs as a result, as well as the benefits citizens receive in oral hygiene. Trustee Lynn Thompson noted during the meeting that there are other health concerns tied to the ingestion of fluoride that are not connected to dental health. Atwood responded that “I’m a scientist, so I look at scientific evidence, I look at factual evidence and I look at the breadth of scientific evidence that is out there,” she explained. “If any of you do a Google search on water fluoridation, I guarantee you that the things that come up are going to be very frightening. If you do that with vaccination, you’ll get the same thing, and a lot of other contested things in public health. When we’re looking at public health, we’re looking at the good of the community from a health perspective. In order to look at Putting you first made us #1. Dina Bryan, Agent 155 W Main Street Walden, NY 12586 Bus: 845-778-7113 [email protected] Making you our #1 priority is what’s made State Farm #1* in auto insurance. I’m here to listen to your needs and to help life go right. CALL ME TODAY. ® * Based on written premium as reported by SNL Financial 2014. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company State Farm Indemnity Company Bloomington, IL 1601917 State Farm County Mutual Insurance Company of Texas Dallas, TX that, you need to look at the scientific evidence.” Walden resident Robert Walther told the board that he’s strongly in favor of the idea of eliminating fluoride from the public water supply. “Quite frankly, I think it’s unconscionable that you should forcibly medicate me and the whole village,” he said. “Aspirin is very good for you, so why don’t you start putting aspirins in the water? Some peopl