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Town employee quietly lowered fluoride in water for years

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Town employee quietly lowered fluoride in water for years

RICHMOND, Vt. (AP) — Residents of a small group in Vermont have been blindsided final month by information that one official of their water division quietly lowered fluoride ranges almost 4 years in the past, giving rise to worries about their youngsters’s dental well being and clear authorities — and highlighting the enduring misinformation round water fluoridation.

Katie Mather, who lives in Richmond, a city of about 4,100 in northwestern Vermont, mentioned at a water fee assembly this week that her dentist just lately discovered her two children’ first cavities. She acknowledged they eat plenty of sugar, however famous that her dentist really helpful in opposition to supplemental fluoride as a result of the city’s water ought to be doing the trick.

Her dentist “was working and making skilled suggestions primarily based on state requirements all of us assumed have been being met, which they weren’t,” Mather mentioned. “It’s the truth that we didn’t have the chance to present our knowledgeable consent that will get to me.”

The addition of fluoride to public consuming water techniques has been routine in communities throughout the USA because the Forties and Nineteen Fifties however nonetheless doesn’t sit nicely with some individuals, and plenty of international locations don’t fluoridate water for numerous causes, together with feasibility.

Critics argue that the well being results of fluoride aren’t totally recognized and that its addition to municipal water can quantity to an undesirable treatment; some communities lately have ended the follow. In 2015, the U.S. authorities lowered its really helpful quantity in consuming water after some youngsters acquired an excessive amount of of it, inflicting white splotches on their enamel.

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Whereas such splotches are primarily a beauty downside, the American Dental Affiliation notes on its web site that fluoride — together with life-giving substances together with salt, iron and oxygen — will be poisonous in massive doses.

However within the really helpful quantities, fluoride in water decreases cavities or tooth decay by about 25%, based on the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, which reported in 2018 that 73% of the U.S. inhabitants was served by water techniques with satisfactory fluoride to guard enamel. So for some individuals in Richmond, it was a shock to listen to their water wasn’t assembly the usual.

Kendall Chamberlin, Richmond’s water and wastewater superintendent, instructed the Water and Sewer Fee in September that he lowered the fluoride degree due to his issues about modifications to its sourcing and the really helpful ranges.

He mentioned he worries about high quality management within the fluoride utilized in U.S. consuming techniques as a result of it comes from China — an assertion that echoes unfounded stories about Chinese language fluoride which have circulated on-line lately.

And, he mentioned, he doesn’t suppose the state’s really helpful degree of fluoride is warranted proper now.

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“My responsibility is to take affordable care and judgment for the safety of public well being, security and the atmosphere of my clients,” he mentioned, including that “to err on the aspect of warning is just not a nasty place to be in.”

Chamberlin didn’t reply to an Related Press e-mail looking for remark.

Two of the three fluoride components U.S. water techniques can use do, in actual fact, come from China as a result of they don’t have any home producers, however all are topic to stringent requirements, testing and certification to make sure security, CDC spokesperson Tracy Boehmer mentioned in an e-mail. Spokespeople for the Vermont Division of Well being concurred that each one components should meet these nationwide requirements.

Chamberlin’s choice flabbergasted residents and docs.

“For a single particular person to unilaterally make the choice that this public well being profit won’t be warranted is inappropriate. I believe it’s outrageous,” retired Dr. Allen Knowles mentioned on the Sept. 19 assembly. He mentioned he has an 8-month-old granddaughter he thought was getting adequately fluoridated water.

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“Fluoride, once more, is likely one of the most profitable and essential public well being measures that has ever been undertaken on this nation,” Knowles mentioned. “The discount in dental illness is simply inarguable. You don’t set up security primarily based on one particular person’s opinion or one examine or this or that.”

Most water naturally incorporates some fluoride, however sometimes not sufficient to forestall cavities.

The mineral was first added to public water in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1945. Now it’s commonplace, though extra prevalent in some states than others; Oregon, New Jersey and Hawaii have the bottom proportion of residents with fluoridated water, based on the United Well being Basis.

Fluoride can also be added to toothpaste and different topical merchandise and is in some meals.

In sparsely populated and largely rural Vermont, 29 of the 465 public water techniques voluntarily fluoridate, and simply over half of residents served by a public system get fluoridated water, based on the Vermont Division of Well being. The state’s normal degree relies on federal suggestions.

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Cities that fluoridate should preserve ranges inside the state’s suggestions and submit month-to-month stories to the state Well being Division.

The state’s former fluoride program supervisor, who retired in 2019, had tried working with Chamberlin and his staff in Richmond, “and issues would enhance for some time, however drop again down once more,” Robin Miller, the director of the Workplace of Oral Well being, wrote in an e-mail to the AP.

Miller mentioned she didn’t understand the city’s fluoride quantity had been persistently low for thus lengthy till March this yr. After a website go to by the state in April, the degrees didn’t enhance, so Miller contacted the Richmond city supervisor in June, who requested she attend the assembly in September, she mentioned.

On the second assembly Monday, the one at which Katie Mather raised issues about her youngsters’s enamel, Chamberlin — who doesn’t dwell on the town and appeared on-line — learn a press release of apology.

“Phrases can’t categorical how sorry I’m for inflicting this controversy,” he mentioned. “Imagine me once I say I’ve all the time solely had good intentions primarily based on a misunderstanding. I promise I’ll be sure that nothing like this ever occurs once more.”

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A former Richmond worker who labored below Chamberlin identified the month-to-month report is reviewed by the city supervisor and goes to the state.

“It’s not only one man doing what he desires. He’s bringing these stories to his boss, who indicators them,” mentioned Erik Bailey, now the village supervisor in Johnson.

City Supervisor Josh Arneson mentioned Chamberlin or different staffers all the time instructed him ranges have been acceptable. He mentioned he first heard from the state in June concerning the persistently low ranges.

The fee voted to return the water to full fluoridation. It’s not clear whether or not anybody might face skilled repercussions; personnel points have been mentioned in a closed session.

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Los Angeles wildfire economic loss estimates top $50 billion

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Los Angeles wildfire economic loss estimates top  billion

US private forecaster AccuWeather said on Wednesday that estimated damage and economic loss from the California wildfire, already one of the worst in history, is over $50 billion at a preliminary level.

Raging wildfires in Los Angeles killed at least two people, destroyed hundreds of buildings and stretched firefighting resources and water supplies since they began on Tuesday, with fierce winds hindering firefighting operations and fueling the fires.

AccuWeather, which estimates the loss between $52 billion and $57 billion, added that if the fire spread to densely populated neighborhoods the current estimates for loss would have to be revised upward.

“Should a large number of additional structures be burned in the coming days, it may become the worst wildfire in modern California history based on the number of structures burned and economic loss,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said.

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23-year-old hiker found after surviving for 2 weeks in Australian mountain range

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23-year-old hiker found after surviving for 2 weeks in Australian mountain range

A 23-year-old medical student who was missing in a remote Australian mountain range for two weeks has been located.

Hadi Nazari from Melbourne went missing on Dec. 26, 2024, when he separated from two hiking companions to take photos in the Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales state, the Associated Press reports. 

He survived on two muesli bars, foraged berries and creek water, police said on Wednesday.

His rescue came after he approached a group of hikers on Wednesday afternoon, telling them he was lost and thirsty, Police Inspector Josh Broadfoot said.

UTAH BROTHERS SURVIVE AVALANCHE AFTER ONE PULLS OTHER OUT OF SNOW BURIAL

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Aerial footage shows rescuers with Hadi Nazari, who had been missing for two weeks after going hiking. (New South Wales Rural Fire Service via AP)

“This is the fourteenth day we’ve been looking for him and for him to come out and be in such good spirits and in such great condition, it’s incredible,” Broadfoot said, according to Reuters, adding that Nazari was in “really good spirits.”

The hiker had traveled more than six miles across steep and densely wooded terrain from where he was last seen. More than 300 people had searched for him in the national park that is home to the 7,310-foot Mount Kosciuszko. 

2 DEAD AFTER SEARCH FOR SASQUATCH IN WASHINGTON NATIONAL FOREST

Hadi Nazari, 23, found after missing for two weeks

Hadi Nazari, a 23-year-old medical student from Melbourne, can be seen hugging friends before being taken for medical evaluation after being rescued on Jan. 8, 2025. (New South Wales Rural Fire Service via AP)

Nazari was reunited with his two hiking friends on Wednesday before he was flown to a hospital for a medical assessment, Broadfoot said. Video showed them in a deep embrace prior to his departure.

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Weather conditions are mild during the current Southern Hemisphere summer.

Hadi Nazari surrounded by rescuers

Hadi Nazari, 23, can be seen surrounded by rescue crews after spending two weeks lost on a remote Australian mountain range. (New South Wales Rural Fire Service via AP)

Searchers had been optimistic that Nazari would be found alive. He was an experienced hiker equipped with a tent. Searchers had found his campfire, camera and hiking poles in recent days, suggesting that he was continuing to walk.

Ambulance Insp. Adam Mower said Nazari only needed treatment for dehydration.

“He’s in remarkable condition for a person who’s been missing for so long,” Mower said.

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The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Three Gaza hospitals face imminent closure as latest Israeli raids kill 50

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Three Gaza hospitals face imminent closure as latest Israeli raids kill 50

The United Nations warns that a lack of fuel supply in Gaza threatens to shut down more medical facilities across the besieged territory, putting the lives of patients and newborns at “grave risk”.

The UN’s condemnation of the “deliberate and systematic” attacks on Gaza hospitals came as relentless Israeli strikes killed more than 50 more Palestinians in the last 24 hours.

Gaza health officials on Thursday said Al-Aqsa, Nasser and the European hospitals are at risk of imminent closure, after repeated Israeli bombardment and blockade of supplies, as they face the same fate as Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, said the facility was now “overstretched” given an influx of more injured civilians, many of them women and children, who had now faced a genocide for 15 months.

“Doctors are reporting about the acute shortage of basic supplies, including surgical tools, antibiotics and painkillers,” he said.

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Dr Bushra Othman, general surgeon and a volunteer at the hospital, said the situation is being assessed every 24 hours, as officials attempt to replenish supplies.

“At any time during the day, power and electricity will cut out, and certain areas should be protected such as the operating theatres, the intensive care unit, including the neonatal unit,” she told Al Jazeera.

At Nasser Hospital, Doctors Without Borders warned that the lives of 15 newborns in incubators were at risk due to a shortage of fuel for generators that provide electricity to the facility.

“Without fuel, these newborns are at risk of losing their lives,” said Pascale Coissard, MSF’s emergency coordinator.

Palestinians carry the body of a child at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, also reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the atmosphere in the Palestinian territory “is quite charged with tension and fear”.

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“What we have seen over the past 24 hours has been very bloody. The death toll from the past day has really been staggering,” he said.

On Thursday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) renewed its call for a ceasefire. “More humanitarian aid must come into Gaza and a ceasefire is more critical than ever,” the group wrote on X.

Despite the UN’s appeal, Israel continued its bombardment across the Gaza Strip.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic at least six Palestinians were killed in attacks at dawn in central and southern Gaza, while at least eight others were killed in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

Wafa news agency reported that four Palestinians, including three children, were killed at Nuseirat refugee camp while several others remained missing under the rubble.

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Wafa said Israeli strikes killed at least 51 civilians and injured 78 others in the past 24 hours.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 46,006 Palestinians and wounded at least 109,378 others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis on Thursday stepped up his criticisms of Israel’s military campaign as “very serious and shameful”.

In his yearly address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide on Thursday, the pope appeared to reference deaths caused by the cold weather in Gaza, where there is almost no electricity.

“We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit,” the text of his address said.

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