Fluoride a waste of taxpayers' money
Fluoride a waste of taxpayers' money
I should like to offer one exception to your claim that every reputable health organization supports fluoridated water.
What follows is a 1999 summary by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the benefits of fluoridated water:
"Fluoride's (cavity)-preventive properties initially were attributed to changes in enamel during tooth development because of the association between fluoride and cosmetic changes in enamel and a belief that fluoride incorporated into enamel during tooth development would result in a more acid-resistant material.
"However, laboratory and epidemiologic research suggests that fluoride prevents dental (cavities) predominantly after eruption of the tooth into the mouth and its actions are primarily topical for both adults and children."
-- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999
In other words, if fluoride works at all, it does so via direct exposure to the outside of the tooth and not from inside the body.
Fluoridated toothpaste and fluoride rinses are more than adequate for this purpose.
Obviously, the decision-makers in Calgary who chose to remove fluoride from municipal water understood this.
Given that less than one-half of 1% of fluoridated water finds its way onto one's teeth (a stat that the city's water manager would confirm), does it really make sense to continue this wasteful practice?
Peter Desotti
Sudbury
I should like to offer one exception to your claim that every reputable health organization supports fluoridated water.
What follows is a 1999 summary by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the benefits of fluoridated water:
"Fluoride's (cavity)-preventive properties initially were attributed to changes in enamel during tooth development because of the association between fluoride and cosmetic changes in enamel and a belief that fluoride incorporated into enamel during tooth development would result in a more acid-resistant material.
"However, laboratory and epidemiologic research suggests that fluoride prevents dental (cavities) predominantly after eruption of the tooth into the mouth and its actions are primarily topical for both adults and children."
-- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999
In other words, if fluoride works at all, it does so via direct exposure to the outside of the tooth and not from inside the body.
Fluoridated toothpaste and fluoride rinses are more than adequate for this purpose.
Obviously, the decision-makers in Calgary who chose to remove fluoride from municipal water understood this.
Given that less than one-half of 1% of fluoridated water finds its way onto one's teeth (a stat that the city's water manager would confirm), does it really make sense to continue this wasteful practice?
Peter Desotti
Sudbury
posted by Bill at
9:51 AM
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