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Two actions/announcements at the Blount County Commission meeting Thursday night deserve our comment and continued support:

n Lorene (Mrs. A.J.) Smith was elected Blount County historian by the commission, succeeding the late Jane Thomas.

n Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham announced that South Blount Utility District has agreed to begin fluoridation of the water served its 14,000 customers.
We think both were positive events.

Lorene is vice president of the Blount County Genealogical and Historical Society and before her retirement worked 20 years at the Blount County Library where she headed the genealogy department.

A native Blount Countian both her family, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Bean, and her husband’s family, Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Smith, were long involved in local events in the community. A.J. is a retired banker.

For 12 years she wrote a regular column, “Digging for Ancestors,” for The Daily Times. She wrote a total of more than 200 of the popular columns.

And in the last three years she has been most helpful as a volunteer in helping us find historical details in connection with The Daily Times’ “Snapshots of Blount County History” volumes.

After strong encouragement by Mayor Cunningham, South Blount Utility District announced it has reversed its stand on fluoridation of its water. Until it opened its own plant in July 2004 on the Little Tennessee River (Tellico Lake), all South Blount Customers were receiving fluoridated water which was supplied by the city of Alcoa. Upon completion of its own plant, the board decided against fluoridation in a highly controversial decision.

We have consistently supported fluoridation of public water supplies. That practice began in the United States in 1945 and is widely supported by mainstream medicine and the U.S. Department of Health.

In 2000, approximately 66 percent (162 million) of all Americans on public water supplies were receiving fluoridated water. The U.S. Department of Health seeks to have 75 percent in that category by 2010.

Fluoride is a natural content in water but in most areas is not adequate to help prevent dental cavities. In some parts of the nation, the natural content of fluoride in the water is higher than the amount that is added at water treatment plants nationwide.

Addition of fluoride to public water supplies has reduced tooth cavities nationally by up to 40 percent. Prior to fluoridation, some dentists applied fluoride treatments to their patients’ teeth to help reduce cavities.

We commend the commission on selecting Mrs. Smith as historian and Mayor Cunningham and the South Blount Directors for taking the proper step in the best interest of the dental health in Blount County.