Local News
Safer Streets
The Albina-Killingsworth Safe Neighborhood
Commission was honored by the Portland Police
Bureau with a “Commendation Medal” on April 16
for its successful efforts to make the neighborhood
surrounding the intersection of North Albina
Avenue and Killingsworth Street a safer place to
live, work, and study. The Commission, based out
of Portland Community College’s Cascade
Campus, is made up of local residents, business
owners, and educational institutions and
government agencies such as PCC, Jefferson High
School, POIC, the Police Bureau, and TriMet,
among others. Pictured from left in the front row
are PCC-Cascade Campus President Algie
Gatewood
(holding
award);
Humboldt
Neighborhood Association Chair Paul Anthony;
PCC Board member Kali Thorne Ladd; Celeste
Carey, of the city’s Office of Neighborhood
Involvement; JHS Vice-Principal Ricky Allen; PCC
Public Safety Director Ken Goodwin; PCC Public
Safety Sgt. John Thompson; POIC’s Val Polk; and
PCC Public Safety Lt. Derrick Foxworth. The award
was presented at David Douglas High School
during the Police Bureau’s annual awards
ceremony.
Killer
continued from page 1
hatred as a sickness in the community.
Hennekens points to firearms related
deaths for specific examination. Citing data
from the publically available Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention database,
he says it’s not just a problem for young
Black men. The overall rates of homicide in
the U.S. are seven times higher than they
are in other developed countries and the
rates from firearms are 20 times higher.
Even in the young age groups, the mortality
rates from firearms are 43 times higher, says
Hennekens.
“Combating the epidemic of mortality due
to firearms without addressing firearms is
analogous to combating the epidemic of
lung cancer due to cigarettes without
addressing cigarettes,” he says. “There have
been a lot of emotions that are very high on
both sides of this question and I think we
need more reliable evidence as soon as pos-
sible.
“We want to optimize the health of the
public, we want to look at the existing evi-
dence and do the research necessary to test
the questions and weigh that in view of the
constitutional right of individuals to bear
arms.”
Hennekens says he’s glad that academic
medical research will play a role in the
national plan to reduce mortality from
firearms. Medical centers should be a cen-
tral part of the research to prevent these
occurrences, instead of just being the insti-
tutions that delivery of care, he says.
“I think it was Mark Twain who said,
‘You can always tell when academics are in
dispute because the emotions are high and
the stakes are low,’” says Hennekens. “Well
here, the emotions are high and the stakes
are high but we have an absence of a suffi-
cient body of evidence on which to make
the best judgments on what to do.”
this country: the American Medical Associ-
ation, the American Academy of Pediatrics,
the Centers for Disease Control…
“You’ve heard fluoride is a chemical –
Meies Matz: “Why are we choosing this
when we have other alternatives. This
deserves a bigger conversation.
There are good people on both sides of
don’t see them drinking a lot of water. So is
making everyone ingest this really the best
way to help children of color?
If we really want to help kids of color then
we need more dentists –dentists where the
first question isn’t what kind of insurance
do you have?”
“We want to be thoughtful. We want to
weigh the pros and cons.
We have so many chemicals in our envi-
ronment already that adding more is not a
good thing.
“We have reasonable alternatives. We
could use dental therapists. We have fluo-
ride tablets in schools. We had a successful
sealants program, but what did our Legisla-
ture do? They cut it. Our political leaders
are weak. What would be more effective
would be to get better politicians.
Fluoride
continued from page 1
in their “low fluoride” group had higher
concentrations of fluoride than anywhere in
the United States.
“We have lots of experience with fluoride.
Portland already has 0.1 parts per million of
fluoride in our water. What we’re talking
about is increasing it to 0.7 parts per mil-
lion. It’s perfectly safe.”
Kellie Barnes: “There has never been a
randomized controlled study that has shown
fluoridation is safe and effective ever.
That’s the gold standard in medicine. Sure-
ly we deserve that.”
“The National Academy of Sciences study
clearly identified some populations who are
at risk, such as people who drink a lot of
water, people with thyroid disease, people
with kidney disease, individuals with dia-
betes, babies, and the elderly.”
Phil Wu: “Water fluoridation is agreed
upon by all the major healthcare groups in
I see children drinking those Big Gulps –they
have all kinds of stuff but I don’t see them
drinking a lot of water
Well, everything is a chemical. Water is a
chemical. Our entire bodies are made up of
chemicals.
“It’s safe. It’s effective. It’s the best way
to help underserved, low-income children
and communities of color in overcoming a
health disparity.
this debate. We’re intelligent people and it’s
a bummer we disagree on this. But we prob-
ably disagree on a whole lot of other things
too.
Jo Ann Hardesty: “In the neighborhood I
live in, I see children drinking those Big
Gulps –they have all kinds of stuff but I
Video
continued from page 1
Center trains individuals to use digital video
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The workshops are open to the general public
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field; learning the fundamentals of lighting,
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The workshops are open to the general
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npmtc@comcast.net.
April 17, 2013
The Portland Skanner Page 3