RICHMOND, Vt. — The water superintendent of a small Vermont town admitted that he lowered the fluoride level almost four years ago.
Kendall Chamberlin, Richmond’s water and wastewater superintendent, told the Water and Sewer Commission last month that he had intentionally reduced the fluoride level because he was worried about quality control in the fluoride used in U.S. drinking systems because it comes from China, according to The Associated Press.
According to VTDigger, the discovery came after Richmond’s town manager, Josh Arneson, was notified in June by the state that the town’s fluoride levels were less than half of the amount recommended by the Vermont Department of Health and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state health department had previously reached out directly to Chamberlin in April but noticed in June that the fluoride levels were unchanged, so they reached out to Arneson.
“I still didn’t see any improvement. So I think in June, I reached out to the town manager to express my concern,” Robin Miller, oral health director at the state health department’s Office of Oral Health, told VTDigger.
Arneson told The AP that Chamberlin or other staffers always told him levels were acceptable. He said he first heard about the consistently low levels from the state in June.
When confronted about the fluoride levels, Chamberlin told commissioners that he decided on his own to lower the fluoride levels, according to Seven Days.
“My duty is to take reasonable care and judgment for the protection of public health, safety and the environment of my customers,” he told the commission, adding that “to err on the side of caution is not a bad position to be in.”
The commission has voted to return the water to full fluoridation. It’s unclear whether anyone could face professional repercussions; personnel issues were discussed in a closed session.
The addition of fluoride to public drinking water systems has been routine in communities across the United States since the 1940s and 1950s. Critics argue that the health effects of fluoride aren’t fully known and that its addition to municipal water can amount to an unwanted medication, the AP reported.