Why are we still baffled by fluoride issue?

10:53am Wednesday 6th August 2008

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By Nick Nunn »

EVERY DAY we hear of new health scares. Whether it’s types of food or drink in excessive quantities, allergies or medical matters like drugs with side-effects there always seems to be something which someone thinks will hinder our efforts to live long and healthy lives.

But the vast majority of these scares are pretty quickly either debunked by majority ‘expert’ opinion (like the worries over MMR vaccine) or accepted as common wisdom and acted upon by sensible people – like the fact that smoking is more than likely to give you chronic chest problems and/or lung cancer.

But for as long as I can recall (about 50 years) there is one such subject on which there are extremely strong, but completely opposite opinions have been, and continue to be expressed.

And that’s quite baffling to a non- scientist.

The subject is the addition of fluoride to our water supply which has just raised its head yet again and is to be discussed by East Lancashire Primary Care Trust board members next month.

The argument seems to boil down to whether you believe that additional fluoride would improve the dental health of youngsters in an area which has pretty shocking statistics for child tooth decay or be little more than an attempt to begin slowly poisoning the people of East Lancashire.

To grasp the intensity of the debate you only have to put the F word into Google – there are 7.8 MILLION items on the subject!

The British Dental Health Foundation describes it as “a natural mineral found in many foods and all drinking water” although we are told “the amount varies from area to area”.

On the same page however it is described as a poison which is a waste product from the manufacture of a list of pretty scary products including aluminium and insecticides.

And yet it was apparently introduced into drinking water in the UK as long ago as the 1960s in and around Birmingham and Newcastle and the Republic of Ireland although whether it has helped improve dental health there depends on who you believe.

Water is literally life giving and it is not difficult to understand a deep reaction against the idea of scientists adding chemicals to it before it comes out of our taps – although we all drink liquid every day which has been manufactured and buy thousands of different brands of bottled water on trust.

Whatever happens next month we are not one step away from water fluoridation since even if the PCT says yes it then has to go to the Strategic Health Authority which would take further action only after “widespread public consultation.”

To those of us not qualified to make decisions on the science it seems amazing in this day and age that there isn’t a way of proving conclusively that fluoride in our tap water is either a help or hindrance to better health.