Australia - Dentists drill councils over water fluoridation decay

By Dr Karin Alexander*

In the 1930s, American scientists and public health researchers made a simple, but profoundly important discovery. People living in towns with around one part per million of fluoride found naturally in their drinking water had much less tooth decay that people whose drinking water contained lower levels of fluoride. 

All water supplies contain fluoride, but the levels can vary significantly. At the time, tooth decay in Western countries was a greater public health problem than today, and most people wore false teeth from early adulthood..............................

Dr Karin Alexander is the Federal President of the Australian Dental Association Inc.

A long article about the wonders of fluoride the comments underneath are more informed.

Here is a list of 13 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry and medical science who opposed fluoridation. Surely we can trust some of their expertise on this subject. http://fluoridealert.org/content/nobel_winners/ People everywhere are learning the truth that fluoridation is ineffective for teeth and dangerous to health, so only 5% of the world and only 3% of Europe fluoridate their drinking water. Last July Israel banned it. To see why, Google "Fluoride dangers" and read a few of the 800,000 articles.

Posted by jwillie6. 14/01/2014 09:49:19 AM

Alexander refers to the National Oral Health Plan (2004) advocating fluoridation for all towns. This is a typical example of how fluoridation is promoted. You go to that document and you see that it only has two (yes, 2!) references about fluoridation. Those two papers are poor quality and out-of-date journal articles. One of them in fact references the other as its source of authority. It is a shambles. Alexander fails to take account of the many, many examples of countries around the world that achieve excellent results in dental health (low decay rates) without recourse to water fluoridation. For example: Netherlands, France, Germany, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland ... I could go on and on. Very few countries do practice fluoridation. It is utterly unnecessary. And fluoridation certainly poses a risk to the health of some consumers - unfortunately there is still insufficient research to say exactly how many are harmed in a significant way. I have certainly met a number of fluoride victims who suffer awful, reactive health effects when they consume any fluoridated water. Life is hell for these individuals.

Posted by David McRae. 14/01/2014 11:10:03 AM

Dr. Alexander recounts a fantastical tale worthy of the tooth fairy. The principle that she throws under the bus is that it's unethical to administer blanket treatment without the informed consent of those being treated. That the dental profession is willing to disregard this most fundamental health care ethic says nothing good about their competence or their integrity. The claims she makes about safety and efficacy are not simply out of date, they are entirely bogus and always have been. Fluoridation is unethical, unhealthy, unscientific, untruthful and a complete waste of public funds.

Posted by Janet Nagel. 14/01/2014 12:01:10 PM

If you look at the Material Safety Data Sheet for Flouride, (as Sodium Flouride) you see that it is toxic. http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927595 In small concentrations over a single use it is digestable without any noticable effects. But the long term effects can be significant. None of the studies you refer to mention the dental benefits of it versus the long term health impacts.

Posted by Hugo. 14/01/2014 12:30:40 PM