State Mandate
Report: Joint
hearing of the Public Health and Children and Families Committee,
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
As the time for the hearing of H2633/S122 had been
changed from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm shortly before the hearing, Dr. Dean could
not rearrange the bus trip from Springfield that he had organized.
Therefore, he wisely asked for special permission to be heard at 10:30, as his
busload had to return before the 1:30 session started. With the help of
Sen. Brian Lees and Rep. Sean Curran, he was able to do this.
Dr. Stephen Dean and his group of about 50 (from
Springfield, Worcester, and Boston) had some nice photo ops in the statehouse
and made their presence known to legislators. Dr. Dean and a few others
were allowed to give verbal testimony before the other bills started, and he
reports that most of the legislators on these two committees were in
attendance. In his very persuasive way, Dr. Dean concentrated on the
undemocratic and rights-limiting nature of this mandate.
The hearing for the fluoridation bill did not start until
after 3 pm. Quite a few proponents showed up, all wearing large blue
lapel stickers, but not that many gave testimony. Dr. Myron Allukian
testified first, and some doctors and dentists. All said what we would
expect them to say, nothing different.
Our side had many more testifiers, and included Dr.
Phyllis Mullenix and Myron Coplan,
who both gave outstanding
testimonies. All of our
testifiers complemented each other, with very little duplication in
information. Most concentrated on the health and science aspects, but
there was also great testimony from the environmental as well as the local
points of view.
John McNabb, representing Clean Water Action, testified
and reminded the panel that a joint letter signed by 9 environmental groups
and 3 fluoride opposition groups had been submitted as written testimony.
The only frustration was that during most of the official
hearing for this bill, the 2-committee panel barely had any people there, and
the ones that were there kept having to jump up and vote.
Dr. Dean and his group at the State House
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