Latest news with #SenateNaturalResources
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lively debate erupts over fluoride in drinking water systems
A Senate committee Thursday moved to advance a controversial fluoride bill after hearing from supporters and opponents and from those who assert system-wide injection of fluoride into drinking water violates bodily autonomy and self-will. Sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, the measure would prohibit the introduction of fluoride into public drinking water systems in Utah, but allow prescriptions for the substance by pharmacists. Two counties, Salt Lake and Davis, put fluoride in their water, as does Brigham City in Box Elder County. The 5-1 vote before the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee on SB81 now delivers the bill to the full Senate, with Sen. Dave Hinkins, R-Orangeville, emphasizing the issue has attracted so much attention it should be heard by the full body. Under her bill, Gricius said those who want fluoride for their dental health would be able to get it from a pharmacy, while those who don't would not have to be exposed to it in their drinking water. 'So this bill is fairly simple. It simply removes the addition of fluoride, hydrofluoric acid, from our public water systems. It also deregulates the prescription so that anyone in the state of Utah who wants to have fluoride can go into a pharmacy and get a prescription from the pharmacist without having to go to a doctor or a dentist,' she said. In her introduction of the bill, Gricius had Max Widmaier, 17, sit by her and explain the medical nightmare he suffered — and still has to cope with to this day — due to what he said was the Sandy overfeed of fluoride that happened in 2019. 'I remember my first snowfall in fourth grade. And in sixth grade, I remember sleepovers with my new best friends. In eighth grade, I remember crafting my first successful speech, one that led me before you today,' he said. 'But I don't remember fifth grade. That year, it's just a gaping hole where memories should be. That is because I drank the fluoridated water on that day Sandy City broke its line into the public water.' Widmaier went on to describe the other adverse effects he attributes to the overfeed. 'I didn't realize it then, but I later learned that I had come home that day with a sick stomach and had told my parents the water tasted metallic. I was so sick to my stomach that I didn't even want to go to the district science fair — something completely unlike me. I remember a strange soreness in the corners of my eyes. What I don't remember is blacking out, but my parents do. They remember my head dropping over and over, my face seizing up every 45 seconds.' The teenager ended up in the emergency room, subject to a vast number of tests. 'It is something I barely remember because for three months I was gone. When I came back, I wasn't the same.' He said his hands still shake when he holds them up, the corners of his eyes feel strained and the 'tick' in his body returns if he drinks any tap water or even food cooked with tap water. 'That glass of water cost my family $26,000. That was the economic cost, but the price of that drink wasn't just physical. It took a mental and spiritual toll on us all. It cost us time as a family. We paid in stress, grief and betrayal. I was 12 and I suffered catastrophic heavy metal poisoning.' Several dentists, joined by the Utah Medical Association, argued against the bill, saying they have witnessed firsthand the positive impact on children who live in communities with fluoridated water. Dr. Brent Larson, a dentist in Salt Lake City, said the difference he sees in his young patients who drink fluoridated water is astounding. 'The difference in my experience was astronomical. We used to see kids come in with four, six, eight cavities. We almost never saw someone come in with no cavities in their fillings in their mouth. Once we started fluoridating the water, that all changed. We now see lots of kids with no fillings, no cavities, some will have one or two. This is not a unique experience to me.' Larson asserted the benefits of fluoridated water is 'settled.' Dr. Boyd Simkins, another dentist and the public policy advocate for the Utah Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and an oral health advocate for the Utah Academy of Pediatrics, also extolled its benefits. 'The No. 1 reason for missed schools is dental caries. The No. 1 reason for missed hours of work is dental caries (cavities or tooth decay). Anything we can do at a public policy level to reduce this is advantageous, especially when the research shows that it is safe.' But Elaine Oaks, a trustee with the South Davis Water District, said it is a matter of choice. 'I do not refute that fluoride helps strengthen teeth with the appropriate concentration,' she said. 'It is neither the role of government, nor is it proper for a majority of people to determine that the entire population require medication in publicly provided drinking water. It is incumbent upon each individual and the rights of parents in determining what medical treatment is best for them and their children.' Hydroflurosilicic acid as a concentrate in its undiluted form is classified as a hazardous, poisonous material. While it contains fluoride, it also contains arsenic, lead, copper, manganese, iron and aluminum. It is a byproduct from phosphate mining operations. Several system operators testified for the bill, with one man asserting he was gassed by the acid in its undiluted form from faulty hoses. 'I spent six hours in the emergency room. I spent weeks after that going to the health department, Davis County and back, trying to figure out what they could do for me, what could be done,' said J.D. Watt. 'Nothing. As of this day, they don't know what they can do for me. At the site during the accident, the fire department didn't know what to do, the emergency room didn't know what to do. I sat there on oxygen for 6½ hours, and to this day, I still can't go into a public pool because of the chlorine that's high in the area affects my lungs.' Members of the medical community countered that too much of anything can be harmful. .
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bills would provide more Utah campgrounds options, acquire federal land advance
A pair of land bills advanced on unanimous votes from the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee on Tuesday that would set up a mechanism to create state campgrounds and then to also facilitate up to 30,000 Bureau of Land Management acres for Utah to purchase or lease. The bill by Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, gives the state the ability to create campgrounds — not a full blown state park — through a bottom-up process. Utah state parks received more than 1.3 million visitors in fiscal year 2024 and are often packed. Eliason spoke of how he sought to make a reservation at one particular park early in the season, but it was already booked during prime camping time. His bill, HB34, would give the state the ability to create state campgrounds but only with the approval of the local governing body such as a city council or county commission. The campground proposal would also need buy-in from the state representative from the area as well as the state senator. 'This bill does not create any state campgrounds. It simply creates the process by which we would evaluate and potentially approve state campgrounds,' Eliason said. 'It is a bottom up approach versus top down, which we are all too familiar with.' Eliason pointed to the example presented by the Utah Raptor State Park, due to open later this year. It moved forward by cobbling a number of landowners parcels together, including the school trust lands administration, the Division of Fire, Forestry and State Lands, as well as the federal government. This sort of cooperative approach was enshrined in a bill last year that had unanimous support, but Eliason said the Senate simply ran out of time to get it passed. 'There are all sorts of opportunities,' with state campgrounds that can alleviate to an extent the pressure valve on state parks, he stressed. Another measure directs the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office to conduct a survey of federal lands that may be suitable for lease or purchase. It caps the acreage at 30,000 acres per year and would have to be for the purpose of providing public good. SB158, introduced by Sen. Keven Stratton, R-Orem, sets up a process to facilitate a survey of federal lands that if acquired would accomplish a beneficial public purpose. Counties have worked in tandem with the federal government for such purposes, such as putting in a landfill, a park or fire station. 'What this bill does is it's an information gathering and a unifying voice within the state, under direction of PLPCO to track and provide resources and allow that (information) to be drawn upon,' Stratton said. 'We need to track that and have that information available if we're desiring to continue and continue the course of wise stewardship of the resources in our care.' Redge Johnson, director of PLPCO, said the mechanism has been used with success before with the federal government with success using provisions in the federal Recreation Public Purposes Act. 'But I don't think anybody knows exactly how many acres we've gotten, so I think this is a good bill to get in and track and see how many we have,' he said. The bill does not preclude private nongovernmental organizations from making purchases or leases.
