Buffalo Water to start adding fluoride to city water Tuesday

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Buffalo Water customers won a major victory as a truckload of fluoride was delivered to the Colonel Ward Pumping Station.

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Buffalo Water Board Chairman OJ McFoy and Peter Merlow, chief engineer of the City of Buffalo Water Department, announced the arrival Monday morning.

“We will reintroduce fluoride tomorrow morning, and everyone will be on site to make sure we do it slowly and gently,” McFoy said.

Buffalo’s drinking water has been fluoride-free for nearly a decade. Over the weekend, the Erie County Health Department approved the fluoridation process.

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“We acted very quickly, consistent with our obligations to the public, but we did it in a very safe, procedural and methodical way,” Merlow said.

We told you last year that fluoride was being phased out in 2015 to modernize the system. McFoy said the Buffalo Water Board had been using powdered fluoride and wanted to switch to liquid.

“When we made that change, there was a lot going on, other cities were changing their approach and public health horrors were happening, so we never wanted that to happen here in Buffalo, so we made every effort to check that,” he said.

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Buffalo Water will reintroduce fluoride Tuesday, starting at a low dose and taking several months to work up to a higher dose. Merlow said customers won’t notice a difference in taste or smell.

“We do it in a systematic way and we do it over time according to the health department recommendations to make sure we never have an overdose,” Merlow said.

However, the transition from powder to liquid is not without controversy.

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Parents of Buffalo children have filed a class action lawsuit alleging that depriving them of fluoride violates their constitutional rights.

Doctors also spoke at the Commune Council meetings, demanding the restoration of the mineral deposits.

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Dr. Marcelo Araujo, dean of the School of Dentistry at the University at Buffalo, stated that fluoride prevents tooth decay.

“Fluoride is one of the greatest innovations that has come to dentistry in years,” he said. “I think putting fluoride in Buffalo’s water is a great decision. I think what we see in terms of equity and ensuring the health of our population will have a very positive impact.”