Reds, Pinks and Pearly Whites

1955 - The Year the Communists Invaded My Teeth

It began with a notice in the newspaper. On February 10 1955, Walter Kegel, Santa Fe City Councilor and chairman of the City’s Sanitation Committee, announced a public meeting to discuss a proposal to fluoridate Santa Fe’s drinking water.

What no one knew at the time – except for Mrs. Reese P. (Loretta) Fullerton of Santa Fe, New Mexico -- was that the communists had been preparing for this moment since 1930, when American scientists first discovered that fluoride, when applied to the teeth in very low concentration, significantly reduced tooth decay.

As it turned out, this was the only beneficial effect of fluoride, an ion of fluorine formerly known as the aluminum industries leading waste product and pollutant. In high concentration, fluoride was the primary constituent in rat poison. Prolonged exposure to moderate levels of fluoride appeared to cause, in children, both thyroid damage – resulting in uncontrollable weight gain – and neurological damage, resulting in significantly reduced IQ scores.

Even more exotic uses were discovered for the miracle of fluoride. During World War II, Germans and Russians were reported to have used carefully controlled fluoride additives in the drinking water of prisoners of war to “reduce their ability to resist domination by slowly poisoning and narcotizing certain brain centers, rendering them stupid and docile.”

Mrs. Fullerton knew that farsighted Communist party leaders early realized the possibilities of using fluoride to render Americans fat, stupid and docile by simply adding a smidgen of fluoride into the tap water.

In post-war America, communist operatives apparently infiltrated the nation’s medical and scientific apparatus. Utilizing the National Health Institute, an unwitting tool of the communists, the party began a propaganda campaign, persuading the medical and dental establishments that adding fluoride to drinking water in nominally small amounts would reduce tooth decay in children. The campaign was remarkable successful. In 1945, eight test cities (six in America, two in Canada) quickly proved that adding fluoride to drinking water (less than one part per million) significantly reduced tooth decay. The successful test inspired a national health movement, which quickly turned into US health policy so that by 1955, fluoridation had spread to 93 cities across the nation. By the time the idea reached Santa Fe, the City of Hobbs had been drinking fluoridated water for two years.

So strong was the movement for fluoridation that, by 1955, there were only a scattered few who opposed public fluoridation. Some opposed it as mass medication; some saw it as an erosion of personal rights; and some believed it to be contrary to the will of God. And there were some who knew it to be a communist conspiracy.

On February 16, 1955, the City Sanitation Committee meeting took place. Over one hundred members of the local proletariat crowded into the council chambers, almost all in support of fluoridation. The listed speakers in favor of the proposal were Dr. Ralph Lopez, President-elect of the New Mexico Dental Association who also spoke on behalf of the local dental society and Dr. Bergere Kenney, President of both the Santa Fe and the New Mexico Medical Associations. A representative of the New Mexico State Department of Health appeared and pronounced fluoridation cheap, safe and beneficial. Other civic organizations appeared before the Sanitation Committee to urge public fluoridation – The League of Women Voters, the Maternal Health Center and the local PTA. Even the New Mexican posted an editorial in favor of fluoridating the “kiddies.” Not all of these groups were, in fact, agents of the communist party or even fellow travelers. Most, Mrs. Fullerton suspected, were merely dupes in the communist plan for global domination through public fluoridation.

Only four Santa Fe citizens spoke in opposition. Three were members of the I AM Organization, an eccentric local religious group who believed that fluoridation was against the will of the aforementioned God. The only other opponent was Loretta (Mrs. Reese P.) Fullerton.

Mrs. Fullerton had come early to the meeting and distributed “Americanism Bulletins.” These were crudely printed pamphlets, which contained alarming details of the communist conspiracy. Mrs. Fullerton claimed that public fluoridation was communist plot to “wipe out entire communities with greater effectiveness than the atomic bomb.” Mrs. Fullerton then pointed out that New York City – “the strongest Communist center in the United States” – had not yet adopted fluoridation. These were telling points, indeed, but years of propaganda had apparently blinded the American masses to the truth.

Mrs. Fullerton had given the Committee a four-page statement that she had signed as chairwoman of the Legislative Committee of the Santa Fe Woman’s Club and Library Association. When questioned, Mrs. Fullerton admitted the statement did not represent the opinion of the Club. Until that day, the Woman’s Club was apparently unaware of the statement. An officer of the Woman’s Club declared, “As far as the Woman’s Club is concerned in this matter, Mrs. Fullerton is speaking only for Mrs. Fullerton.”

After listening to 26 speakers over three hours, the Sanitation Committee took an informal poll of those in attendance and counted 109 in favor of fluoridation, 4 against and one undecided. The Committee then closed the discussion and, in view of the overwhelming support for the measure, forwarded a favorable recommendation on the proposal to the City Council.

Though it appeared that the communists had won the round, citizen opposition to fluoridation took to the media. A group called the Santa Fe Citizens for Pure Water Committee sponsored a half-page ad warning of the poisonous effects of fluoride. Quickly, an even larger pro-fluoridation ad touting “17 Facts about Fluoridation” was published by, among others, the Santa Fe Junior Chamber of Commerce (a possible communist front?) which urged Santa Fe citizens to “have faith in science.” Pro-fluoridation elements wrote letters to the editor and the New Mexican contributed an editorial, which said, in part:

We hope the City Council will not be sidetracked by the ridiculous claims made by opponents of the measure. The debate should center upon how to put the program into effect and how to pay for it, rather than whether to go ahead. Santa Fe needs and wants fluoridation; it is up to the City Council to figure out how to go about it.

On March 30, the Santa Fe City Council met in regular session and formally took up the ordinance on fluoridation. Those favoring public fluoridation were Dr. Ralph Lopez, speaking for the entire dental health establishment, Dr. David Striffler for the New Mexico Health Department and the lawyer Thomas B. Catron III. Speaking in opposition were Mrs. Nancy Lane, Alfred Fetteral, Reverend Oliver Money, Pastor of the Church of the Nazarene, and Mrs. Reese P. Fullerton.

The newspaper does not record what was said at the council session but the New Mexican reported that Mrs. Fullerton requested that the City Council conduct further study before acting. Apparently, her plea was ineffective. After three hours of speeches, the City Council voted 5 to 2 (with 1 abstaining) in favor of adding fluoride to the City’s drinking water. (Councilors in favor of fluoridation were George Berntsen, Leo Murphy, Walter Kegel, Frank Gomez and Willie Seligman; councilors opposed to fluoridation were Sam Pate and Lou Schifani; the abstaining councilor was Dionicio “Don” Ortiz).

Though the matter appeared to be settled, anti-fluoridation activists continued to agitate. So much so, that the City Council agreed to a further public discussion of on fluoridation when the contract for fluoridating the City’s water came up for vote, despite grumbling by Mayor H. Paul Huss that the ordinance had already been passed.

A clearly vexed New Mexican editor wrote:

In the two months since the council acted, Santa Fe has been victimized by a very small and very loud minority which has fought to incite a hysterical plebeian revolution against science. This small, loud minority doesn’t believe the City Council should consider the recommendations of the highest bodies of scientific research in the nation. ‘Listen to us,’ these people say, ‘we know what we’re talking about. Science is wrong . . .’ (May 23, 1955)

An astonishing 200 citizens appeared at the May 25 Council session to approve the fluoridation contract. Again, Doctors Ralph Lopez and Bergere Kenney appeared and forcefully spoke in favor of fluoridation, joined by representatives of the New Mexico Department of Health, the Parent Teachers Association and, curiously, the Santa Fe Junior Chamber of Commerce. Again the speakers were overwhelmingly in favor of fluoridation. Except one.

Mrs. Reese P. Fullerton stood before the Council and demanded to know if any physician present would prescribe fluorides for her children. When Dr. Brian Moynahan rose to answer that he would, he was “rebuffed” by Mrs. Fullerton who stated he would not be allowed to treat her children.

After 26 speakers, the City Council abruptly adjourned without taking any action on the fluoride question. Without fanfare and in accordance with ordinance, the City’s water department began to introduce fluoride additives to Santa Fe’s drinking water in late summer 1955.

In the end, the communists were victorious. But it may be of some comfort to Mrs. Fullerton, wherever she may be, that New York City began fluoridating its water in 1965, giving the communists a taste of their own medicine.