Last modified: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 12:20 AM EST EDITORIAL: A chance to end NA fluoride fight Maybe - finally - the fluoridation issue can come to an end in North Attleboro - without actually deciding on the issue. The town learned this week that a lawsuit brought by the board of health against the board of public works to stop fluoridating the water will not be heard until May 29. That's more than a month after voters will decide a race for board of health member between incumbent Diane Battistello and challenger John Donohue Jr. The board of health is now split 2-1 against fluoride, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the 2000 presidential election. Battistello has been a leader of the anti-fluoride movement; Donohue favors fluoridation. Thus, if Battistello wins, the fluoride suit goes on; if Donohue wins, the lawsuit will likely be dropped. Both Battistello and Donohue are likely to talk about other issues in the campaign. Battistello, in fact, never mentioned fluoride in a letter to the editor of The Sun Chronicle about her candidacy published on Sunday. However, fluoride has been by far the hottest topic surrounding the board for several years, with anti-fluoride activists trying usurp the authority of voters by taking fluoride out of the water. The board of health's decision to sue another town board has to be particularly galling to the 59 percent of the electorate who chose to follow the recommendation of the nation's leading health organizations and add fluoride to the public water supply to improve their children's and their own oral health. The money spent defending one town board against another also has to be galling, to all taxpayers. Fluoride foes have continued to use scare tactics in their attempt to override voters' wishes and remove the substance from the water. The latest focus has been on fluorosis, a largely cosmetic condition that affects children who receive highter-than-recommended amounts of fluoridated water. That is not the case in North Attleboro, where the fluoride is only half the amount at which health agencies warn of fluorosis. The nation's leading health organizations - the American Medical Association, the American Dental Association, the Centers for Disease Control - all enthusiastically support fluoride. Parts of the nation have been fluoridated for more than 60 years with no ill effects. Two-thirds of the nation's public water supplies are now fluoridated, including neighboring communities of Attleboro, Mansfield and Seekonk. It's time the silly campaign against fluoride also ends in North Attleboro. Voters have that chance on April 3.