Reporting Highlights
- Momentum for Skeptics: Fluoridation has long been heralded as a public health triumph, but skeptics increasingly hold sway in government.
- Public Left in the Dark: Customer notice requirements are patchy, so people may not know about it when their fluoridation stops.
- Mixed Feelings in Michigan: Fluoridation was pioneered in Grand Rapids, but other Michigan communities are either dropping it or debating it.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
Just 15 months after receiving an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for excellence in community water fluoridation, the city of Grayling, Michigan, changed course.
With little notice or fanfare, council members voted unanimously in May to end Grayling’s decadeslong treatment program. The city shut down the equipment used to deliver the drinking water additive less than two weeks later…