INSIDE THIS ISSUE: President’s Message 1 Dick Jones Tribute 3 Arkansas News 4 Florida News 4-5 New Affiliate News 6 Kentucky News 6 South Carolina New 7 North Carolina News 8 Alabama News 8 Georgia News 9 Tennessee News 10 Contributed Article 11 State Assoc Meetings 13 Membership App. 14 Volume 3, Issue 4 President's Message Becky Barnes October 2006 SHA UPDATE Southern Health Association As I have traveled to the affiliate states, my comments have focused on two aspects of Southern Health Membership. I’ve talked about; “What Southern Health Membership can do for you”, and then “What you can do for Southern Health”. The recent death of Dick Jones has caused me further reflection on that topic. Dick was a great leader in Southern Health. He was a recent past president and he held many committee chairmanships and respon- sibilities. I remember Dick led us through a strategic planning ses- sion, that in most cases would be boring, but Dick was never boring. His zest and passion for Public Health, people and life was always apparent. Some of my fondest memories of Dick were his entertain- ing stories that he shared after official business was done. Everyone who has ever heard his exhortation regarding the difference in men and women, and how they use paper products, knows exactly how humorous he was. He had that special ability to take difficult, stress- ful or even ordinary situations and see the humor in them. My Southern Health Association membership has afforded me the opportunity to know Dick Jones. My life both professionally and personally has been enriched because of him. The Southern Health Associations is a better, stronger association due to Dick’s work. Public Health in his beloved state, Arkansas, and Public Health in the entire Southern Region is better and stronger due to Dick’s con- tributions. Simply put, Dick made this a better world, and we will greatly miss him.
Transcript
I N S I D E TH I S I S S U E :
President’s Message 1
Dick Jones Tribute 3
Arkansas News 4
Florida News 4-5
New Affiliate News 6
Kentucky News 6
South Carolina New 7
North Carolina News 8
Alabama News 8
Georgia News 9
Tennessee News 10
Contributed Article 11
State Assoc Meetings 13
Membership App. 14
Volume 3, Issue 4
President's Message
Becky Barnes
October 2006
SHA UPDATE
Sout he rn Heal th As soci ati on
As I have traveled to the affiliate states, my comments have focused on two aspects of Southern Health Membership. I’ve talked about; “What Southern Health Membership can do for you”, and then “What you can do for Southern Health”. The recent death of Dick Jones has caused me further reflection on that topic. Dick was a great leader in Southern Health. He was a recent past president and he held many committee chairmanships and respon-
sibilities. I remember Dick led us through a strategic planning ses-sion, that in most cases would be boring, but Dick was never boring. His zest and passion for Public Health, people and life was always apparent. Some of my fondest memories of Dick were his entertain-ing stories that he shared after official business was done. Everyone who has ever heard his exhortation regarding the difference in men and women, and how they use paper products, knows exactly how humorous he was. He had that special ability to take difficult, stress-ful or even ordinary situations and see the humor in them. My Southern Health Association membership has afforded me the opportunity to know Dick Jones. My life both professionally and personally has been enriched because of him. The Southern Health Associations is a better, stronger association due to Dick’s work. Public Health in his beloved state, Arkansas, and Public Health in the entire Southern Region is better and stronger due to Dick’s con-tributions. Simply put, Dick made this a better world, and we will greatly miss him.
Mark Your Calendar
Plans are currently underway for the 2007 joint annual meeting of the Geor-gia Public Health Association and the Southern Health Association to be held in Savannah, Georgia, September 4-7. What better place could you find to combine a vacation and work, so we hope all members will start now to make plans to attend.
Future newsletters will have additional information on the meeting, or check out our website at www.southernhealth.net for additional information as it becomes available
APHA Annual Meeting
The 134th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association will be held in Boston, MA, November 4-8, 2006. The theme for this year's meeting is Public Health and Human Rights. There will be over 900 scientific sessions and more than 675 exhibitors. This is an excellent opportunity for members of Southern Health Association to remain current on relevant issues and to meet public health colleagues from across the country.
Don't forget that since the meeting will take place over election day, be sure to vote by absentee ballot before you go. We look forward to seeing you in Boston.
GPHA Annual Meeting – September 2006: Lt –Rt: SHA President, Becky Barnes; GA Health Offi-cer, Dr. Stu Brown; SHA Past President, Hugh Barnes
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Sympathy Expressed to Family of Dick Jones
As has already been stated in other sections of this newsletter, SHA is indeed sorry to learn of the death of Dick Jones of Clarksville, Arkansas. He passed away suddenly with a massive heart attack on September 20, 2006. We express our sym-pathy to his wife, Pam, and son, Ben. (Cards may be sent to: Pam Jones, 10 Mockingbird Lane, Clarksville, AR 72830.)
Following are some excerpts from an email from Dr. Paul K. Halverson, Director of Health and State Public Health Officer for the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services, which will be of interest to those who knew Dick.
Dick was a larger-than-life guy with a sharp wit and quick smile. Everyone that knew him has a favorite Dick Jones story. Let me just share a few. Holly Tencleve, one of Dick’s co-workers at the Regional Office said, she and Dick were eating lunch on Tuesday and they were talking about food. What about some cake and ice cream! About a hour later, Dick stuck his head in and said “Get to the breakroom.” He had big buckets of Bluebell Rocky Road and Banana Split Ice Cream sitting on the table along with little “zoo” bowls like a kid would eat from. Everyone sat and told stories for about 15 minutes--one big family. Debbie Higgs, a co-worker, said Dick did this all the time. He was always grilling burgers, bringing the turkey at Christmas and Thanksgiving. He continually worried about the staff and made sure the staff knew they were appreciated.
Barbara Hager writes about Dick, “When I came to Little Rock back in 1989, trying to decide if I wanted to make Arkansas my home, Dick was the one who squired me around town. He took me to look at housing, he took me to try the Chinese food of the locals and he told me stories all of the way there and back. We became friends over those days. He was a family man and he adored son Ben and wife Pam. If I had to describe Dickie Lynn Jones, it would be four nouns - Public Health leader, motivational speaker, mentor, and friend.”
Don Murray, Northwest Regional Director, said, “As I was driving to Little Rock this morning, I saw the most spectacular sun-rise I had seen in a long time. All I could think about was that Dick was up there celebrating with Fay and the two of them making sure that public health in Arkansas was moving along. Dick lived life full speed ahead. He believed in people hav-ing a good quality of life and ensuring that was one of his passions. As his legacy, we should remember that he loved life, he loved people and he would want us to do likewise.”
Dick faithfully served the Arkansas Department of Health and Division of Health for 28+ years. He came to work as a health educator on December 10, 1978. During the course of his tenure, he served as the Health Educator Supervisor, Interim Di-rector of the Division of Health Education, Colleague Development Coordinator and, most recently, Dick had a BS degree from the University of the Ozarks and attended the University of Central Arkansas Graduate School. He was a past president of APHA, 1999-2000, and member of APHA. He was a member of the Southern Health Association and past president, 2003-2004. He was a graduate of the Arkansas Academy of Public Health Leadership, South Central Public Health Leadership Insti-tute, was an Associate Instructor for the Interagency Training Program, State of Arkansas and on the panel of the Arkansas State Grievance Appeal. He was a recipient of the Resolutions of Commendations Award from the ADH Director Dr. Jocelyn Elders. He was a member of the Arkansas Society of Professional Health Education Educators and a member of Arkansas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
(The family has designated the University of the Ozarks College Scholarship Fund or the American Heart Association for memo-rial donations. Also, memorial donations may be made to the Southern Health Association or the Arkansas Public Health Associa-tion.)
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Arkansas News State Health News
Public Health Laboratory - What was just a dream and vision will soon become a reality for Division of Health employees and the State of Arkansas. The state’s new state of the art public health laboratory facility will be dedicated October 4, 2006. Statewide dignitaries and colleagues have been invited to attend.
Human cases of West Nile increasing in Arkansas - The Division of Health announced in September that human cases, birds, mosquitoes, and horses infected are increasing. To date 16 persons have tested positive for the disease. The division of health is continuing the monitor the state with regard to mosquito borne diseases.
WIC Program Kicks off New Program - This fall, the Arkansas WIC Program is kicking off a major “WIC, Making a Difference for Families.” This campaign was initiated this summer with intensive staff training in all regions targeting a renewed effort to:
• Provide services to all applicants in a timely manner
• Assess nutritional need and provide targeted individual nutrition counseling
• Offer nutrition education to all participants in area of breastfeeding, family nutrition, weight management and physical activity
• Refer participants to other health and social services
The second phase of this campaign is completion of a self-evaluation to establish baseline for current WIC nutrition assess-ments. This will assist in implementing Value Enhanced Nutritional Assessment (VENA), a positive approach to Nutrition Assessment based to obtain desired health outcomes.
A s s o c i a t i o n N e w s
The Arkansas Public Health Association will hold their annual meeting May 9-11, 2007 at the Austin Hotel and Hot Springs Convention Center in Hot Springs, AR.
The Arkansas Public Health Association and the Division of Health was saddened on September 20, 2006 by the death of Dick Jones, a past President of APHA and the Southern Health Association. Dick was passionate about public health in Arkansas and showed this many times during his 28 years with the Division of Health. Dick was a good friend to many and will be
Florida News FPHA Annual Meeting was held August 1-4, 2006 at the PGA National Resort & Spa. We were most pleased to have Becky and Hugh Barnes join us for some of the program and social activities. The FPHA meeting was attended by approximately 300 people. Prior to the beginning of the FPHA meeting, FPHA coordinated and hosted the meetings for the Public Health Lead-ership Institute of Florida's 10th and 11th classes (USF, College of Public Health), the Florida Association of Public Health Nurses, the first Summit for the Florida Center for Universal Research to Eradicate Disease, and the State Dental Directors. With all of the groups, we had over 550 participating this year.
The 2007 FPHA Meeting will be held July 30 - August 3, 2007 at the Tampa Grand Hyatt. All SHA and its affiliate members are invited to come to Florida for FPHA and a fun summer vacation.
The new Executive Board officers for 2006-07 are:
Nick Chapman, President
Mike Napier, President-Elect
Prakash Patel, 1st Vice President
Frank Meyers, 2nd Vice President
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Florida News Cont. Continued from Page 4
Yvonne Hale, Secretary
Robin Wright, Treasurer
David Galvin, Member at Large, 2007
Paula Mooty, Member at Large, 2008
Lea Heberlein-Larson, Member at Large, 2009
Linda Keen, Immediate Past President
Warren McDougle, SHA Representative
Matthew Dillon, APHA Representative
The complete Board listing will be on the website.
FPHA membership continues to increase. This year we have 957 members to date. The new Membership Committee is al-ready looking at many ways to increase membership for 2007. FPHA did agree to participate with the APHA affiliate mem-bership drive during the APHA meeting in November.
The FPHA Board held a two day strategic planning session and Board meeting in June. The Association invited representa-tives from many of our partner organizations - FEHA, FACHO, FNA, FAPHN, Business Managers group, all universities with health programs, etc. - to join us as we wanted to address the following issues:
1. Reenergize organization & increase membership by insuring comprehensive
attention to critical P.H. issues at every level.
2. Identify significant Public Health and related issues using input from every
provider-source in Florida.
3. Prioritize issues identified.
4. Provide recommendations to FPHA Board for inclusion in Strategic Plan update.
5. Identify Federal and State legislative issues and priorities.
6. Identify Agency/Organization partners for specific legislative issues.
7. Provide recommendations for Theme, focus, tracks, and potential
speakers/participants for 2007 Annual education Conference.
8. Provide recommendations for increasing membership through meeting potential
member needs.
9. Identifying the significant Public Health issues.
An updated Strategic Plan was completed on the second day with goals and objectives
and we began working on the action steps. FPHA also wanted to address issues of
interest to all of the organizations in order to help with planning the 2007 meeting
program.
Many of the items mentioned here will be up on the FPHA website as soon as our webmaster gets back after maternity leave. It you would like more information sooner, contact the Executive Office @ 904-529-1401.
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Kentucky News
The Kentucky Public Health Association has initiated a Courtesy Rx Program that is available to anyone who may go to our web page www.kpha-ky.org and print a card. All one has to do is enter their name and birthday and e-mail (optional). Take the card to any participating pharmacy to realize any savings. The card works on generic or brand names depending on the prescription. Some 35,000 pharmacies are participating nation wide. It is not insurance. Persons who are underinsured or who have no insurance should benefit. One does not have to be a member of KPHA to participate.
KPHA has also initiated a members only benefits page. One must be a member with an ID number and pass word to access this page. The benefits page include among other things health care benefits, travel discounts, worldwide condo rentals at reduced cost, monthly specials, automobile purchases and other benefits. We are working on adding various insurance coverage's, cruises and other travel options.
KPHA and the Kentucky Health Departments Association has a Legislative Day Scheduled for November 14, 2006 at the Capitol Annex in Frankfort. We in-vite Legislative Leaders to present their views on issues that both organizations are interested in. The Legislative session begins in January and runs through February 2007.
Welcome Tom Bridges The SHA Governing Council would like to welcome Tom Bridges, Health Director, Henderson County Department of Public Health, Hendersonville, NC, as the new Affiliate Representative for the North Carolina Public Health Association. He replaces Dr. Sherman Kahn who has served as their Affiliate Representative for the past several years. Thanks Dr. Kahn for your many years of service.
Donations SHA has received donations from the following in memory of Dick Jones:
Hugh and Becky Barnes (TN)
Suzie Hamm (KY)
Ted Hanekamp (KY)
Jackie Clark (SC)
Karen Owens (SC)
Sandra Whittle (TN)
Richard Funderburk (SC)
Jan Cooke (SC)
Other Donations received since those last listed in the Update include:
Lou Thayer (VA)
Ronny Van Vlake (SC)
Frank Meyers (FL)
Bill Routh (SC)
Peggy Montalbano (NC)
Fred Hering (FL)
Carol Ballard (TN)
Becky Barnes (TN)
Donna Culbreath (SC)
Hugh Barnes (TN)
Susan Bland (AL)
Sherman Kahn (NC)
Dr. Charles Hamilton (TN)
Dukes Named Deputy Commissioner
Pam Dukes has been named as the new Deputy Commissioner for Health Regulation.
“I look forward to continuing to build
the relationships I’ve developed by working with all the great employees at Health Regulation and throughout DHEC,” Dukes said.
Dukes has been with DHEC for 21 years. She began her career as a chemist in the Bureau of Radiological Health and most recently held the position of assistant deputy commissioner for Health Regulation. Dukes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in medical technology from Georgia State University.
Her husband, Craig Dukes, works for DHEC in Environmental Quality Control’s Bureau of Land and Waste Management.
DHEC’s Lead Program Nationally Recognized
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized the CLPPPSCAN program for its program to make data more read-ily available concerning lead exposures.
“The overall goal of this system was to make data available in a number of user friendly formats to accommodate different ways to analyze public health surveillance data,” said M.L. Tanner, former director of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Pre-vention Program in the Division of Women and Children’s Services. “It allows anyone to look at his or her community and get a feel for the childhood lead poisoning problem there, as well as locate resources such as schools and health care fa-cilities.”
“Public Health professionals can use this tool to identify hot spots or potentially high-risk areas and potentially focus intervention efforts and limited educational outreach dollars based on actual real-world numbers rather than biased perceptions or faulty logic,” said Jared Shoultz, a Biostatistician with PHSIS. “In addition, concerned citizens can query the CLPPP SCAN module to map out the elevated blood levels in their county and determine what risk factors are associated with the area they live in simply by entering their address into the sys-tem.”
The EPA’s office of Children’s Health Protection and Environmental Education gives recognition and awards to support and facilitate ef-forts to protect children’s health and supports education efforts that develop an environmentally conscious and responsible public. Children may be more vulnerable to environmental exposures than adults because: Their bodily systems are still developing; they eat more, drink more, and breathe more in proportion to their body size; and their behavior can expose them more to chemicals and organisms.
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South Carolina News
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After 16 years with the North Carolina Public Health Association (NCPHA) and the North Caro-lina Association of Local Health Directors (NCALHD), Deborah Rowe is retiring as the Execu-tive Director. Public Health workers across the state have joined in a united voice of gratitude for her daily example of passion and dedication for public health. She has been a recognized presence in our State Legislature and will truly be missed.
With Deborah's departure the NCPHA, NCALHD and the NC Alliance of Public Health Agen-cies, Inc. a 501(c)3 will share administrative staff of three to handle business and legislative functions of these three public health agencies. Heather Gates will serve as Executive Direc-tor of the agencies, Jen Johnson will be the Operations Officer and Heather Butler, Administra-tive Director. It is anticipated that the confluence of the business operations of these three agencies will offer greater continuity, stability and marketing of public health in North Caro-lina.
NCPHA is just completing its annual conference in New Bern with the theme,
"Are We Ready" with an attendance of approximately 350. For additional
details, please refer to www.ncpha.com.
Alabama News
The 2007 Annual Meeting of the Alabama Public Health Association, (AlPHA) will be held in conjunction with the Alabama Environmental Health Association at the Riverview Hotel, Mo-bile, Alabama from Wednesday, May 16 through Friday, May 18. All SHA members are invited to attend this meeting.
The convention coordinators and Program Planning Committee are in the early stages of planning an exciting program. A theme has not been chosen at this time, and further details will be posted in the next edition of the SHA Update.
The Treasurer reported that AlPHA currently has 483 members. Last year at this time AlPHA had 365 members. The Membership Committee was commended for its recruitment efforts.
A Strategic Planning Committee was formed to make AlPHA more visible and stronger. A re-port will be presented at the next Board Meeting.
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N o r th C a r o l i n a N ew s
• The Georgia Public Health Association's (GPHA) 77th Annual Meeting and Conference was held at the Augusta Mar-riott Hotel & Suites, September 5-8, 2006 in Augusta, Georgia. The conference theme was “Public Health: Everybody, Everyday, Everywhere.”
1. GPHA was pleased that SHA President, Becky Barnes and her spouse, Hugh Barnes were able to attend the President’s Reception, bring greetings from SHA at the business meeting, and meet the new GPHA Executive Board.
2. Margaret Park was presented with a memento of thanks from the Board of Directors for her six years of service as GPHA Executive Director. Margaret Park has said she plans to continue to be an active participant in both GPHA and SHA. We wish Margaret the best of her retirement. Thanks for all you have done for public health in Georgia, the region, and the nation.
Donna Adams Morgan will serve as Interim Executive Director. GPHA is considering applicants for the Executive Direc-tor position.
• 2006 - 2007 GPHA Officers:
ο President – J. Fred Agel
ο Past-President – Bill Fields
ο President Elect – Doug Skelton
ο Vice-President – Robert Taylor
ο Secretary – Greg Fenno
ο Treasurer – Regina Abbott
ο Representatives-at-Large – Michael Chaney, Valeria Johnson
ο APHA Representative – Lisa Carlson
ο SHA Representative—E. Joseph Alderman
2007 Joint Meeting Southern Health Association/Georgia Public Health Association
The Georgia Public Health Association is pleased to remind all affiliate and individual members that the 2007 Joint Meet-ing Southern Health Association/Georgia Public Health Association will be held at the Savannah Marriott Riverfront Ho-tel September 4-7, 2007 in Savannah Georgia. Georgia looks forward to providing an educational, entertaining meeting for all. More information will follow http://gapha.org/.
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Georgia News
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S HA U P DA T E
Association News The theme for the TPHA 2006 annual conference to be held November 1-3 in Franklin, Tennessee, is “Charting the Course for Public Health in Tennessee: New Challenges, New Opportunities.” The opening session speaker is Dr. Vincent Covello, Founder and Director of the Center for Risk Communications of New York. Dr. Covello will use his vast knowledge and experience in the field of risk communications to prepare us for the communication pitfalls inher-ent in dealing with a major crisis like Pandemic Flu.
Also, speaking at the opening session will be Vice Admiral Richard H. Carmona, MD, 17th Surgeon General of the US Public Health Service. He will discuss the challenges and opportunities confronting public health in the 21st century. During his administration his goals were to increase disease prevention, eliminate health disparities, and strengthen public health preparedness. Woven throughout these efforts was his desire to improve the health literacy of all Ameri-cans so they can access, understand, and use health related information and services to make good health decisions. His comments will provide a framework for the remainder of the conference where breakout sessions will focus on these issues.
State News
Smoking in State Office Buildings - On June 20, 2006, Governor Phil Bredesen signed into law a bill prohibiting smok-ing in all state buildings. This is a bill in which the Tennessee Public Health Association was actively involved in get-ting passed. Doris Spain, TPHA Executive Director and member of SHA, was present for the signing of the bill.
Local Health Department Receives National Recognition – The National Association of County and City Health Offi-cials (NACCHO) honored the Scott County Health Department on July 27, 2006, in San Antonio, TX, for the implementa-tion of a program that demonstrates exemplary and replicable qualities in response to a local public health need. The Scott County Child Health Initiative is one of 18 local health programs selected from across the nation to receive NAC-CHO’s model practice award.
The program was initiated in 2003 and involves two components. The school-based component involves actual well-child screening clinics being operated by a public health nurse in each of the local elementary schools throughout the school year. Complete well-child screenings and EPSDT’s are provided to students in grades 1-3. Both the Scott County school system and the Oneida school system worked with the health department in 2003 to make a well-child screening mandatory for school attendance in these grades. Scott County is the only county in the state to have this requirement, and this helps assure that all students in these grades receive a screening either through the health de-partment’s school clinic or at their local physician’s office.
The second component of the program is home visitation and education. This component targets children birth-21, and education is presented regarding well-child screening (EPSDT), immunizations, and the WIC program.
A committee of peers from across the nation selected the Scott County Health Department from a group of 85 appli-cants. The Scott County child health initiative will become part of an online, searchable database of successful public health practices. The database will allow NACCHO to share information about what is working across the country in local public health.
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Tennessee News
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C o n t r i b u t e d A r t i c l e (Contributed articles by members of SHA are welcome for publishing in the SHA Update. They may be submitted at any time and will be considered for publication in the next issue of the Update.)
Tennessee Celebrates 55 Years of Community Water Fluoridation
Submitted by: David E. Brumley, DDS, MPH
This year marks the 55th anniversary of one of the most significant dental and public health advances ever in Ten-nessee. In March 1951, Milan became the first city in Tennessee and the sec-ond city in the Southeast to adjust the level of fluoride in its community wa-ter supply for the prevention of tooth decay. As a result, five years later in 1956, the six-year-old Milan children had a 57 percent reduction in tooth decay in their permanent teeth com-pared to the 1951 same-age cohort. In addition, when compared to their counterparts in Humboldt and Trenton – two neighboring nonfluoridated cit-ies – the 1956 Milan six-year-olds had a 62 percent and 70 percent reduction in tooth decay, respectively.
Beginning with Milan, the state of Tennessee has chosen to implement community water fluoridation using a voluntary educational process rather than legislative mandate. Today, Ten-nessee continues to conduct an active statewide fluoridation program to ini-tiate, upgrade, and maintain commu-nity water fluoridation. Because of the program’s success, 4.9 million Ten-nessee residents (more than 96 per-cent of all Tennesseans on community water systems) are served water con-taining optimal levels of fluoride. Ten-nessee has surpassed the Healthy Peo-ple 2010 population target for commu-nity water fluoridation by more than 10 percentage points.
Tennessee has had many “firsts” in the area of community water fluorida-tion. Our state was the first to offer financial assistance to communities to initiate water fluoridation; enabling many small communities to fluoridate their drinking water. It was the first to have approved public water supply signs on the major highways going into communities to also indicate the community was fluoridated. In 1979,
in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a National Fluoridation Training Center was established at the Fleming Train-ing Center in Murfreesboro. This fa-cility trains fluoridation personnel from across the United States, as well as numerous countries throughout the world.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes fluoridation of drinking water as one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century in the United States. Fluorida-tion has been endorsed by almost all national and international professional health organizations as the most effec-tive dental public health measure in existence. Data consistently have in-dicated that water fluoridation is the most cost-effective, practical, and safe means for reducing the occurrence of tooth decay in a community.
A few years ago, public health dental staff examined more than 17,000 school children residing in 62 Tennes-see communities. Analysis of data collected in this survey showed that community water fluoridation was significantly related to levels of tooth decay in the children’s primary and permanent teeth. After the data were adjusted for age, race, and socioeco-nomic status, levels of tooth decay were 21 percent lower in primary teeth and 25 percent lower in perma-nent teeth in optimally fluoridated communities compared to nonfluori-dated communities.
Dental health is integral to general health and essential to well-being throughout life, and without good den-tal health one cannot be truly healthy. Tooth decay is one of the most com-mon chronic diseases for all age groups in the United States. The con-sequences of tooth decay include pain, infection, compromised appear-ance and chewing ability, the need for
costly treatment, and absence from work and school. Community water fluoridation benefits are readily provided to everyone in the community especially those without access to regular dental care, regardless of socioeconomic level, age, race, ethnicity, or any other demographic categorization. After 55 years of successful water fluorida-tion in Tennessee’s cities and communities, it remains the most effective community-based program for the reduction of tooth decay.
Despite this dramatic reduction, we con-tinue to face emotional challenges to this remarkable public health intervention by those who oppose fluoridation for political or personal reasons. Since 1951, antifluori-dation leaders in Tennessee have come and gone, yet their beliefs and tactics have remained the same using unproven claims, innuendos, statements out of context, and misinterpretations. Antifluoridationists have their “list of evils” that they keep re-peating because if something is said often enough, a few people tend to think there may be some truth to it. Throughout dec-ades of research and practical experience, the overwhelming weight of credible sci-entific evidence has consistently indicated that fluoridation of community water sup-plies is safe and effective.
Tennessee can be proud of its leadership role among states with one of the most suc-cessful public health projects in history. The Tennessee Public Health Association recognizes the important public health benefits of community water fluoridation and encourages its members to work with county boards of health, county health councils, local and state health depart-ments, dental and medical societies, and concerned citizens to assure the continua-tion of optimal fluoridation of our commu-nity drinking water supplies.
(Published: Tennessee Public Health Asso-ciation Newsletter, Vol. 29, No. 1, 03/2006)
S o u t h e r n H e a l t h A s s o c i at i o n C al e n d a r
SHA Governing Council Meetings January 8-9, 2007……………………………………………………… Savannah, GA
September 4, 2007 ………………………………………………….…..Savannah, GA
