USA - More fluoride isn't necessarily safe - letter

More fluoride isn't necessarily safe February 8, 2007
The Star-Gazette recently reported that the Corning City Council is hoping to come up with the necessary funds to adjust fluoride levels in the city's water supply. Powerful lobbyists are hard at work to persuade the council members that ingesting more fluoride, higher levels than found in our water, is an absolutely safe and effective way to prevent tooth decay for all residents. How can such a one-size-fits-all approach be true?Since individual's water intake varies widely, a person's weight, age, health and so on must play a role in effectiveness and safety. How much water do children, the actual target group, have to drink to benefit from fluoride?If fluoride is such a potent chemical that when ingested can alter and strengthen tooth enamel, one must consider it a drug or a medicine that is supplied to everybody in unregulated doses. The fact that other communities are fluoridating their water for years does not prove the absolute safety of this practice. For decades we also believed that asbestos, lead and even smoking have no adverse health effects, and we were proven very wrong.Our bodies are already overburdened with countless controversial chemicals, and to knowingly consume even more seems imprudent.HENRIKE DOWLER