Girl at the dentist, NHS, dental
An NHS report found children had fewer fillings in areas where fluoride was added
to the water supply Photo: ALAMY
By Claire Carter12:20AM BST 28 Sep 2013
Around six million people currently have fluoridated water in England, in areas where councils have opted into the scheme.A report found that where fluoride has been added to water, such as Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire where supplies have been treated for decades, fewer children needed fillings.
Britain’s ten million children had around 3.5 million fillings last year, and experts believe youngsters in socially deprived areas may benefit most from mass fluoridation.
But critics of adding fluoride to the water supply suggest it could be putting children at risk of developing dementia when they get older.
Philippe Grandjean, professor of environmental health at Harvard University, told the Daily Mail: "The possible effects on degenerative brain diseases are uncertain.
"We recommend further research to clarify what role fluoride exposure levels may play in possible adverse effects on brain development so that future risk assessments can properly take into regard this possible hazard.”
It is thought adding fluoride could create mottled teeth as well as cause aluminium to move around the body from the stomach to the brain, increasing the risk of dementia. In England councils are allowed to choose to opt into the scheme to add fluoride to the water supply, but campaigners are calling for a measure where people have to give explicit consent for their water supply to be added to.
The NHS report records the number of fillings carried out on children per Primary Care Trust area, before they were abolished under the health reforms.
Of the areas in the top five for fewest number of fillings, three of these – North Lincolnshire, Walsall and Warwickshire – were areas where supplies had been treated with the enamel protecting chemical.
Areas where wholesale fluoridisation carried out had seven per cent less fillings compared with the rest of the country.
Susan Hodgkiss, from the British Fluoridation Society, said reviews of fluoridation had found dental health benefits. She added: “Socially deprived children suffering the highest levels of decay may be among those who stand to benefit most."
3 comments:
By the looks of the comments people are becoming more and more informed and it's about time to, stop relying on the nanny state to tell you what's good and what's not look it up for yourself, education really is a good thing.
There are lies, damned lies and, of course, here we have our old friend - NHS statistics.
Maybe when the world becomes a more truthful place they will include such details as numbers of dentists per head, local dentistry policy, comparative controls (blind or otherwise?), group and recording data, etc. etc. etc. Cooked, bluffed and puffed claims like these doesn't alter the fact that these NHS bodies spout meaningless nonsense in support of poisoning our water supplies.
They are either mad or bad - and in both cases should be locked up.
Well said Cllr Cooke, i'm fed up of hearing this nonsense about how beneficial fluoride is when clearly it is not, we have a health authority (PHE) who insists that fluoride works and that it's safe, the research however says otherwise so by all rights shouldn't fluoridation be halted until further study's are carried out or are these authorities on a different agenda to everyone else, if a certain brand of baby food is found to be suspect then the whole batch is re-called and not just the odd jar or two if there is any doubt as to the safety of fluoride then it should be stopped pending further research,as this has not happened then i fully suspect our health authorities to be pushing an agenda rather than a health product, what makes me say that is the fact that the PHE should be long gone instead and it's plainly obvious that they are looking for a back door to get fluoride into Southampton's water which makes the whole issue look even more suspect.
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