Council members made their decision after listening to a parade of 80 opponents and proponents, some of whom made extraordinary claims and many of whom clutched sheafs of paper that they said contained conclusive scientific evidence proving their point. An argument frequently used by opponents was that fluoride is a hazardous byproduct of the fertilizer industry. Some contend the industry is secretly pushing fluoridation so it can dispose of fluoride cheaply. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta say some fluoride does come from fertilizer manufacturing. Basically, fluoride is made when certain rocks are smashed together, mixed with acid and then heated.
Phosphates are another byproduct of the fertilizer industry.
Parents feed phosphates to their children every day when they hand them a soda, said Kathy Mudge, a spokeswoman for the California Dental Association. Opponents also argued that fluoridation amounted to mass medication, and should be an individual decision. Those terms mystified David Nelson of the University of California San Francisco, Gov. Gray Davis' appointed expert on water fluoridation. Nelson, who attended the council meeting, said there was fundamentally no difference between the fluoride used in drugs and the fluoride used in food. That city has been fluoridating its water for a little more than a year.