Real Clear Science Ranks Portland's Fluoride Vote Among 2013's Top 10 "Junk Science" Events

Website places it alongside Bigfoot and mermaids.

POLITICAL TONES: Dandy Warhols keyboardist Zia McCabe (center) says she was always liberal but not truly engaged in politics until the fluoridation fight hit Portland. "I didn't make any real-time investments in a political movement until now," she says.
By AARON MESH

'Tis the season when media feels obligated to publish Top 10 lists ranking the year's cultural moments.

It is also, apparently, a chance for the science press to take one more kick at Portland for that fluoridation vote.

Real Clear Science, a national lab-rat news aggregator owned by Forbes, has released its list of the 10 events it dubs "The Biggest Junk Science of 2013."

Coming in at No. 5: Portland's May vote on Measure 26-151, where citizens roundly rejected fluoridation of the city's water supply.

Real Clear Science places that vote in the company of the purported correlation between vaccines and homosexuality, Bigfoot DNA reports, and documentaries about the existence of mermaids.

This is not the first time national media has mocked Portland's fluoride stance. But it might be the meanest.

"Apparently, Portlanders favor that more natural, toothless smile," the post concludes.

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