Published letter in the Portsmouth News from Ann

Now that Alan Johnson has chosen to join a long line of Health Secretaries in yet one more attempt to foist fluoridation onto the population it is sad that the Portsmouth News has chosen to step blindly on the bandwagon. Obviously none of the adverse information about fluoridation passed to the paper or the many letters written by unhappy Portsmouth residents over the past 13 years have left any impression. Alan Johnson has not done his homework nor it would seem has your editorial writer.

Perhaps the following points would help to stir a few memories:

 Fluoride has never been proved to be an essential nutrient.
 Fluorides are already widespread in our environment from many different sources but especially since the introduction of fluoride toothpastes and other fluoridated dental care products. Some children never exposed to fluoridated water have developed dental fluorosis – a symptom of systemic fluoride poisoning – largely because they swallow their toothpaste! Note that even the American Dental Association and the British Fluoridation Society warn that bottle-fed babies should never have their formula feeds mixed with fluoridated water.
 Fluoride has never been proved effective or safe for consumption as witnessed by the recommendations for good quality scientific studies by the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (September 2000), and the US National Research Council (March 2006). While there are serious unanswered questions about the risks to general health it should be inconceivable for any responsible body to contemplate adding a cumulative poison to the public water supply.
 Fluoridation doesn’t work anyway viz the many places in the US (some of which have been fluoridated for 50 years!) now bemoaning the terrible state of children’s teeth in areas of social deprivation.

Note that fluoridated Wolverhampton, often quoted as a flagship for the success of fluoridation, received an increase in dental health expenditure of over 100% between 1992 and 2002 and a massive increase in preventative measures carried out by dentists since 1997.

The real problem of course, apart from sugary foods and drinks and diets low in calcium, is the collapse of NHS dentistry and the lack of affordable dental care throughout the country.

Ann Richards
4 South Road, Hayling Island, Hampshire PO11 9AE
Tel: 023 9246 3761