RADNOR - The Radnor Township Board of Health is starting a dialogue on the subject of providing fluoride to residents in the township's drinking water.At its meeting on Monday, Dr. David Dutkowski, who runs a dental practice in Rosemont, told the board that as a parent of two children, it is "distressing" for him to know that if they lived a few miles away in Philadelphia they would be receiving fluoride daily in the water supply.

There have been many benefits shown from fluoride, like a decrease the incidents of cavities, he said.

Passively delivering it in optimal concentrations can also be done in an economically efficient way, Dutkowski told the board.

Some areas of Delaware and Chester counties do put fluoride in the water supply.

As of 2006, 45 percent of the Pennsylvanian population was receiving fluoridated water; fifty-four percent of the state population that uses the public water supply was receiving fluoridated water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The subject of water fluoridation is not without its controversies and worries, the dentist admits. And the Board of Health wants to hear positive and negative feedback from the Radnor community on the topic.

A representative from Aqua America Pa. is tentatively scheduled to attend the board's next meeting on Dec. 15 at 5 p.m.

Radnor's Board of Commissioners has not weighed in on the topic and is not currently scheduled to do so, according to township manager Dave Bashore.

The conversation on fluoridation is being driven by interested members of the Board of Health.