Salina voters stood up for oral health, sound science

Two years after Wichita voters rejected community water fluoridation for the third time since the 1960s, Salina voters strongly endorsed it last week. The ballot initiative was pushed by a group claiming the city’s 46-year-old water fluoridation program was ineffective and anti-freedom. The successful defense of the proven value of fluoridation to prevent tooth decay was led by 39 dentists and 21 doctors, according to the Kansas Health Institute News Service. Orthodontist Alan Reed told the Salina Journal: “The most cost-effective health benefit in the history of modern health care has been preserved for Salina, and we’re very pleased.” But for the foreseeable future, 21st-century Wichita will remain without one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “10 great public health achievements in the 20th century.” – Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published November 10, 2014 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Salina voters stood up for oral health, sound science."