Well, tonight we continue that conversation
about fluoride in the drinking water.
Who has it and who doesn't.
This conversation is at the fore because
we learned that buffaloes water board
stopped adding fluoride back in 2015,
and this was to make an upgrade to the water
system that would switch the process of
adding fluoride from manual to automatic.
The Mayor of Buffalo said the water board
decided to do years worth of testing
to try to make sure that the update
wouldn't lead to any contamination.
But during all that time, city residents
thought the water was fluorinated.
When it really was not,
and that causes all kinds of problems.
Tonight, though, we want to broaden the
discussion to impact everyone watching,
no matter where you live and to
help us do that.
Joining us live right now is Lynn Kowalski,
the executive engineer of the
Erie County Water Authority,
when we really appreciate you
joining us here.
So here's what we did.
You can go get information from the CDC.
So we've been doing this over the
past few days on wgrz.com right now.
You can go there and see every
single water district that is
municipal or has more than 1000.
Customers that doesn't fluoridate the water.
And I was surprised as we were going
through this data that there are a number
of water districts in Western New York,
I mean dozens of them,
many of them small,
that don't fluoridate.
But can you just begin here by talking
about the importance of telling
people whether you do it or not,
right,
because then you can make
the appropriate decisions.
Yes, Mike, thanks.
Thanks for having me on.
So the Erie County Water Authority
does provide fluoride in our
water and we do it for the CDC
recommendation of 0.7 parts per million.
We serve everybody within Erie.
Well, not everyone within Erie County,
we do not.
We do not serve the City of Buffalo,
town of Tonda,
Wanda or Grand Island,
but mostly any other town or
usability within Erie County.
We provide water to
them. It's interesting as we
were going through this list,
if you look at Niagara County,
for instance, every single water district.
Niagara County fluoridated the water.
The vast majority of them in
Allegheny County, for instance,
does not fluoridate the water.
And so it does seem like, you know,
for people who are watching right now and
who have maybe been following this story
about what the City of Buffalo has done,
do you think it's a good idea for
folks just to check, you know,
depending on where they get their water,
a lot of them get it from you.
And you're saying, you know,
that you do add fluoride.
But for people who are on
different water systems,
it's probably a good opportunity
just to to check and see, right?
Yeah. Michael called their local
health department or their local
water utility to figure out where
they're getting the water from.
And we have been fielding calls from
local residents just trying to figure
out where their water is provided from.
Some people are calling their city
of Buffalo residents or their
residents from other communities
just inquiring about where their
water strong and if they're caught
up in in this fluoride as you.
So Lynn talk about the decision
making process for the Erie
County Water Authority, right,
because you're not mandated to add fluoride.
Why is it that that you all have decided
that this is something important?
And that, I mean, you've been
doing this for a long time, right?
Yeah, I know as far as long as
I've been here for 11 years,
the water authority has
been providing fluoride.
I think it's been going
on much longer than that.
It was a decision made at one point in
time just for overall dental health
to provide fluoride in the water.
Do you ever get questions from people?
And there was a there was a city of
Buffalo Council meeting and there was
one lady who showed up and said that
she thought fluoride is is dangerous.
You know that the CDC disagrees with that,
the American Dental Association
disagrees with that pretty much
every medical organization.
But do you ever get complaints from
people or have you done sort of
that cost benefit analysis on why
fluorinating the water is important?
Yeah. Every so often you
do get those phone calls.
But like I mentioned before,
we do, we do provide fluoride
for the CDC recommendations
for overall dental health,
but we do, we do get those phone
calls once in a while.
Yeah. And I I just wanted to ask
you too about the confusion here
because I guess a lot of people,
you know, maybe don't realize,
you know, I I live in Erie County,
but maybe you get it from your local water.
You live in the City of Buffalo.
You don't know how much of a
burden has that been, I guess,
on the people answering the calls there
at the Erie County Water Authority?
And I mean the calls coming in
are you know it's it's probably
under 50 calls at this point too.
So it's just you know we we try and
point them in the right direction and
and let them know who to call they
found the appropriate information for
where they're getting their water from.
All right.
We've been chatting with Lynn Kowalski
with the Erie County Water Authority.
This is such a huge topic right now.
And obviously, just again to reiterate
to everyone in Western New York,
you know, this is a city of Buffalo issue.
But depending on where you live,
you really should check and see
if your water is fluorinated.
Dentists say it's important that you,
you know, take measures if your water
is not fluorinated and go to wgrz.com
and you can see that full list.
Lynn, thank you for your time.
We appreciate
it. Thank you. I appreciate it.