David Badash at NCRM:
Anchorage, Alaska’s anti-vaxx, anti-mask Mayor Dave Bronson took it upon himself to shut down the fluoride treatment to the town’s water supply, denied reports he had done so, then ultimately admitted to it after it was turned back on. Local laws require fluoridation.
Bronson is a registered Republican although Anchorage mayoral races are nonpartisan.
“Bronson decided to stop the fluoridation while visiting the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility Eklutna Water Treatment Plant on Oct. 1, according to the mayor’s spokesperson Corey Allen Young,” Alaska Public Media, an NPR affiliate, reports.
In a statement Young claimed the mayor turned off the fluoride treatment for five hours after workers told him it was harming them. The union that represents the workers says it has received no complaints. The fluoridation treatment was restarted after the mayor learned local ordinances require it.
“Conspiracists have been obsessed with the fluoridation of drinking water since the 1950s, falsely claiming that it’s a public-health risk or some form of population control,” The Daily Beast adds.
Bronson is an anti-vaxxer and anti-masker. He has “made opposing any meaningful health measures—including expansive testing—a key position of his administration,” The Midnight Sun reports.
Anchorage, AK Mayor Dave Bronson pandered to anti-fluoride conspiracists by turning off the fluoride treatment plant that has the town’s water supply for 5 hours on October 1st of this year. Bronson has been in hot water due to his extremist anti-COVID mitigations, anti-mask, and anti-vaxxer views.