David Bernard Ast

David Bernard Ast , also in the name variants David B. Ast or DB Ast , (born September 30, 1902 in New York City , New York ; † February 3, 2007 in Laguna Hills , California ) was an American dentist and official of the New York State Department of Health.

Life

Family and education

A native New Yorker David Bernard Branch, the youngest of nine children of George Gershon branch (1858-1938) and his spouse Nettie Kronish (1863-1944), turned after visiting the public schools the study of dentistry at New York University to he with the promotion for Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) graduated. In 1929 he married Isabel Helene, who also came from New York City, and died in 2003. From this connection in comes from Northridge in the state of living California daughter Jill Mitchtom. Ast, who moved from Albany to Porter Ranch and later to Laguna Hills after his retirement , died of heart failure in early February 2007 at the age of 104. He left behind his daughter, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Professional background

David Bernard Ast ran a dental practice in the Bronx , New York , before joining Albany in 1938 as Dental Director of the New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Dental Health. He was later appointed Assistant Commissioner for the State Department of Health. To qualify, he studied Public Health at the University of Michigan and received his Master's Degree in Public Health (MPH) in 1942 . His master's thesis included the planning of a project in which drinking water is to be treated with fluoride to prevent caries ( fluoridation ).

Newburgh Fluoridation Project

He finally implemented the project planned in his master's thesis, with the cities of Newburgh and Kingston , which are comparable in size and both on the Hudson River , being selected as test locations. In 1945 Newburgh's drinking water was fluoridated, Kingston's water was not. In the planning phase (April 1944), Trendley Dean warned that these additives could pose unpredictable health risks. The results that David Bernard Ast and his colleagues from the New York State Department of Health were finally able to produce did not confirm the fears. The cavities of the six to nine year olds in Newburgh decreased by 60 percent, those of the 12 to 14 year olds by as much as 70 percent. Diseases such as cancer , birth defects, and heart and kidney diseases showed no significant differences. Dentist and former Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Arthur Scheffel recognized Ast for planning and conducting the Newburgh-Kingston Caries Fluorine Study , with which he had demonstrated that fluoridation can be used safely and reliably. He was the first to receive the John W. Knutson Distinguished Service Award in Dental Public Health for his services to public health. In his speech at the event, he referred again to Dean's objections before the start of the study and praised them as a delaying tactic that enabled Dean to start a fluoridation experiment in Grand Rapids, Michigan , before the Newburgh attempt .

Fluoridation advocate

While many other regions in the United States were fluoridating their drinking water at the time, communities in New York state relied on the results of the Newburgh-Kingston Caries Fluorine Study . In the 1950s, Ast and his colleagues repeated this experiment in Mineola on Long Island , which confirmed their positive results. Ast launched into a prominent advocate for fluoridation of New York's drinking water supplies, which didn't start until 1965.

Fonts

• The caries-fluorine hypothesis and a suggested study to test its application: a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment ... Master of Science in Public Health ..., Thesis (MSPH), University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1942
• with Sidney B. Finn, Isabel McCaffrey: The Newburgh-Kingston Caries Fluorine Study. I. Dental Findings after Three Years of Water Fluoridation *, in: American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. : volume 40, number 6, American Public Health Association, New York, NY, 1950, pp. 716-724.
• together with Arthur Bushel: A Rehabilitation Program for the Dentally Physically Handicapped Child *, in: American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. : volume 43, number 9, American Public Health Association, New York, NY, 1953, pp. 1156-61.
• together with Edward R. Schlesinger: The Conclusion of a Ten-Year Study of Water Fluoridation, in: American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. : volume 46, number 3, American Public Health Association, New York, NY, 1956, pp. 265-71.
• Advances in Experimental Caries Research, American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. : volume 46, number 4, American Public Health Association, New York, NY, 1956, p. 485.
• Book review: Donald R. McNeil's The Fight for Fluoridation, in: American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. : volume 47, number 9, American Public Health Association, New York, NY, 1957, p. 1145.
• together with William Haddon Jr., James P. Carlos: Frequency of dental X-ray examinations in a New York county, in: Public health reports. : volume 77, number 6, US Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration, Hyattsville, Md., 1962, pp. 525-532.

literature

• The Michigan alumnus, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1966, p. 53.
• Ast, David Bernard: Dentistry, Public Health Administration, in: RR Bowker Company: American men & women of science, 1998-99: a biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological, and related sciences. vol. 1 A-B, Bowker, New Providence, NJ, 1998.
• Andrea Kovacs Henderson: American men & women of science: a biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological and related sciences. : volume I, 26th ed., Gale Cengage Learning, Detroit, London, 2009, ISBN 1414433018 , pp. 220, 851.

Web links

• Obituary for David Bernard Ast in: The New York Times ; accessed on January 28, 2014