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The Earth Report ed. E Goldsmith, N Hildyard. London:
Mitchell Beazley 1988 p. 149
Fluoridation Technique of adding fluorides to public water
supplies, with the intention of reducing tooth decay.
Fluoridation transformed a liability of the aluminium
industry (bulk sodium fluoride) into a commercial product. Some
fluoridation is done with fluosilicic acid, a waste from manufacture
of superphosphate fertiliser.
Tooth decay turns out to have declined by about two-thirds
since the 1950s in the wealthy countries that gather dental
statistics. This welcome trend is not understood; possible causes
may include improved diet and brushing, widespread antibiotics
secreted in saliva, and, recently, fluoride in toothpaste, a
concentrated direct application that may well be effective. But
thorough surveys have corrected the earlier claim that natural
fluoride in water is correlated with relative freedom from tooth
decay. Trials claimed to demonstrate benefit from fluoridation have
been severely criticized for lack of controls, and other major
defects.
In some still-controversial studies, fluoridation has, on the
other hand, been rather closely correlated with cancer. Various
other types of harm have been suspected; the one established beyond
dispute is dental fluorosis - bilaterally symmetrical diffuse white
mottling of the teeth, a form of damage commonly observed among
children drinking water fluoridated to 1 ppm. The margin, if any, is
uncomfortably slim between 1 ppm and levels known to cause serious
damage to bones (skeletal fluorosis). In addition, there is the
possibility of adverse synergistic reactions between the fluoride
added to water and the thousands of other chemicals to which modern
industrial systems expose us.
[as the original author I've taken the opportunity to correct
a few editing errors - RM]
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