Mass fluoridation of water being pushed again

In the news this week was one Dr Nigel Carter; a registered dentist and chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation which describes itself as "the independent oral health charity".

The charity is funded my membership fees, the sale of educational material, the fees for approving products and donations. (The source of the donations is not clear from the annual report on the web site.)

Once again Dr Carter is pushing for the mass medication of the population by adding hexafluorosilicic acid (flouride) to drinking water as a means of reducing dental health problems. This is potentially a problem because what is planned to be added to the water is classified as hazardous waste under the 1991 EU Waste Directive.

The addition of a fluoride compound is not risk free either. It tends to increase staining and fluorosis of the teeth and American studies indicate that hip fractures are far more common in those cities that have fluoride in the water supply than those who have never added it.

There was an excellent article in October 2008 by Irish MEP Kathy Sinnott published by the Times Online. (Follow the link here) It points out some of the issues around this.

Essentially the dentists want us to have flouride in our water because it will reduce dental caries. But they do not appear to take seriously any other negative impacts on the population that may occur.

The Dentists cite The York report of 2000 as if this gave fluoridation a clean bill of health; it does not. A follow on report by the Medical Research Council is also clouded by caveats about the unknown long term health effects on developmental health, immune system response and health concerns.

Yet every study does show one thing consistently; that dental decay and poor oral health are mostly to do with social inequality or to put it more simply, poor areas have poor teeth.

So we appear to be trying to fix a social problem with flouride, to me that seems to be the tail wagging the dog. Let's keep water clean and pure and if some social groups need lessons on how to brush their teeth lets deliver that directly rather than undertyaking a mass experiment in human medication.