May 2011 Los Angeles Fluoridation Costs
I live in Los Angeles where water fluoridation started in 1999. According to LADWP's Pankaj Parekh, director of water quality, $17 million was spent to build the fluoridation infrastructure and $1 million is spent each year on chemicals, operations and maintenance. So a total of $ 28 million has been spent so far. In May 2011 the Pew Charitable Trusts, a promoter of fluoridation, stated in a web seminar that for each $1 spent on fluoridation $38 is saved in dental costs. That means for Los Angeles supposedly a billion dollars have been saved in dental costs over the last 11 years. Of course, there has been no actual evidence that fluoridation in Los Angeles has reduced tooth decay or dental costs. I sent an e-mail to Pew Charitable Trusts asking for the evidence that fluoridation saves $38 for each $1 spent, but they have not sent it to me. After 60 years of fluoridation there apparently is little hard data to support the claim of cost savings.
May 2012
David Heumann, the water fluoridation engineer of LADWP of responded to my questions about the cost of fluoridation in Los Angeles. He wrote:
The Chemical Costs for fluorosilicic acid (FSA) are as follows:
2008-09: $1,077,000
2009-10: $ 992,000
2010-11: $ 421,000
2011-12: $ 353,000 (to date)
The decline in total cost over this period is due, in part, to a reduction in price resulting from the most recent bids. I believe that FSA has also recently declined in price nationally. Recently, we have been using a higher percentage of our Los Angeles Aqueduct water source, which contains more natural fluoride. This has resulted in less chemical usage to achieve the same concentration. And finally, we have reduced our optimum concentration to 0.7 mg/L, which resulted in some additional savings.
I was able to obtain the Total Treatment Operations Costs and those for Water Fluoridation (exclusive of chemicals) for the past two FYs and the current FY (to date). They are:
2009-10 Total Treatment Operations Costs: $12,454,000; Fluoridation Treatment Operations Costs: 69,000, or 0.6%
2010-11 Total Treatment Operations Costs: $14,985,000; Fluoridation Treatment Operations Costs: 70,000, or 0.5%
2011-12 Total Treatment Operations Costs: $10,370,000; Fluoridation Treatment Operations Costs: 71,000, or 0.7% (to date)
I was able to obtain the Total Treatment Maintenance Costs and those for Water Fluoridation for the past two FYs and the current FY (to date). They are:
2009-10 Total Treatment Maintenance Costs: $7,997,000; Fluoridation Treatment Maintenance Costs: 172,000, or 2.1%
2010-11 Total Treatment Maintenance Costs: $7,773,000; Fluoridation Treatment Maintenance Costs: 174,000, or 2.2%
2011-12 Total Treatment Maintenance Costs: $3,080,000; Fluoridation Treatment Maintenance Costs: 36,000, or 1.1% (to date)
The timing of the Capital Costs for our water fluoridation system construction (again for FY), were as follows:
1996-97 $ 0.6 million
1997-98 1.9 million
1998-99 2.3 million
1999-2000 2.3 million
2000-01 1.9 million
2001-02 3.4 million
2002-03 3.6 million
Total: $16.0 million
Grant -2.0 million
Net $ 14.0 million
My comments: Has this large expense resulted in less tooth decay in Los Angeles? Nobody knows, because no money was ever spend on any kind of scientific study to find out.