USA - Most health care professionals don't buy the argument that fluoridation is ineffective and dangerous

Most health care professionals don't buy the argument that fluoridation is ineffective and dangerous. Neither should Milwaukee aldermen.

.....Bohl and Paul Connett, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network and a chemist by trade, told us Wednesday that fluoridation has been associated with cancer and that studies in China and elsewhere have proved how dangerous it is. They also said the health care establishment has a vested interest in maintaining that fluoridation serves a public health purpose.

But their arguments, no doubt sincere, aren't based on much more than anecdote, conjecture and studies that aren't particular relevant to the U.S. practice of community water fluoridation.

Hundreds of studies carried out in many different countries in the past 50 years have proved the effectiveness of fluoridation, according to the DHS statement. In addition, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Dental Association all endorse community water fluoridation.
In Wisconsin, a few of the many organizations that support fluoridation include the State Medical Society of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Public Health Association, the Wisconsin Dental Association, the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians.
That may be the so-called health care establishment, but it's a more impressive and convincing array than Bohl's witnesses and his binder. Until he and the rest of the anti-fluoride crowd make a dent in that establishment, we'll stick with the experts.
Should Milwaukee end the practice of adding flouride to its water? To be considered for publication as a letter to the editor, e-mail your opinion to the Journal Sentinel editorial department jsedit@journalsentinel.com
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