Debate Over Halting Water Fluoridation in Yorktown Continues
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Itâs been three months since Yorktown Supervisor Ed Lachterman ordered the suspension of water fluoridation in the town, but the debate among residents and town officials continues.
More than half of the Dec. 17 Town Board meeting was spent discussing the pros and cons of fluoridation, triggered by a recently published full-page advertisement from Councilwoman Susan Siegel. Siegel accused her four colleagues of ignoring âfacts and scienceâ and âthe expertise of highly regarded public health professionalsâ when they voted in October to keep fluoride out of the drinking water of about 40,000 residents in Yorktown and parts of Somers.
âThere are 75 years of peer reviews and science accepted studies that say fluoride is safe and has benefits,â Siegel stressed at the Dec. 17 meeting, where she was targeted by several speakers for her advertisement in Yorktown News that had the heading âProtect Our Children and Grandchildren.â
âFluoride is not a poison. The benefits outweigh any potential harm,â Siegel insisted. âJust because you voted once, doesnât mean you canât change your mind.â
Fluoride was added to the water in August by the Northern Westchester Joint Water Works (NWJWW) for the first time since 2017. Yorktown is served by the NWJWW.
On Sept. 24, U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen, overseeing a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit organization Food & Water Watch and other anti-fluoride groups against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ruled that the current standard for water fluoridation in the United States, set at 0.7 mg/L, presents an âunreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.â
Lachterman, who in August conceded the town was obligated to move forward with fluoridation, stated Chenâs decision emphasized the potential risks to vulnerable populations, including children and pregnant women, leading him to take immediate action.
âItâs a decision Iâll make seven days a week and twice on Sunday,â Lachterman remarked two weeks ago. âWe err on the side of caution. I canât put fluoride in a kid and a pregnant woman and take it out.â
Several residents, including Natasha Allison and Melanie Ryan, supported Lachtermanâs decision and criticized Siegel for her stance.
âWe do not want to have forced ingestion of fluoride,â Allison said.
Ryan presented several books with titles such as âThe Fluoride Deception,â How Fluoride is Killing Youâ and âFluoride: Drinking Ourselves to Deathâ to emphasize her opposition.
âItâs a hazardous waste. Itâs not a natural chemical,â Ryan contended. âWhat makes fluoride so dangerous; the dose makes the poison.â
Andy Steigmeier maintained town officials should take a cautious approach.
âIn my opinion, water should be water, nothing more, nothing less,â he said. âPutting fluoride in that water that people donât want is not a common-sense approach.â
Others, such as twins Ella and Eva, who didnât provide their last names, implored the board to change its thinking on fluoride.
âI hope we set policies that are based on sound science,â Ella said. âOverall, fluoride does help to prevent tooth decay.â
âRemoving fluoride from drinking water can cause more harm than good,â Eva said.
Dan Strauss, a 58-year town resident, agreed with Siegel that Lachterman failed to follow the stateâs Public Health Law by failing to notify the Department of Health 90 days prior to any discontinuation and failing to consult with health professionals.
âI feel you had no right to do what you did,â Strauss said. âI feel that you broke the law. Usually people listen to experts.â
Councilman Sergio Esposito said it was time Siegel and others accepted the boardâs decision on fluoridation.
âI donât want to relitigate this. Itâs already been addressed,â Esposito said. âWe heard from the public. This board made a decision that we were going to sit and wait. Itâs distracting us from doing other critical things.â

Rick has more than 40 yearsâ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rickâs work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/