REGARDING your article 'New Fluoride Plea' (LET, March 23) and the prospect of enforced fluoridation becoming increasingly likely, it is important that as many people as possible understand the dangers fluoride presents to human health.

There are two forms of fluoride. The first is calcium fluoride, which is a natural substance occurring in water at very low levels. The second, an artificial substance, which the pro-fluoridation lobby want you to accept, known as sodium fluoride, occurs alongside various related chemicals which are the extremely dangerous by-products from such industries as aluminium, ceramics, phosphate fertilizers and even the nuclear power industry.

This form of fluoride is an accumulative poison. It is not biodegradable and therefore establishes itself in steadily increasing amounts within the organs of the human body and the environment at large.

World-wide research has shown that fluoride is linked with mouth ulcers, stomach upsets, allergies, arthritic complaints and even discoloured teeth. The risks to people's health have caused fluoridation to be discredited and abandoned in most other European countries, notably Holland.

The claim that adding fluoride to our drinking water reduces tooth decay in children has never been conclusively proven. Tooth decay in children has reduced by 40-50 per cent over the last 15 years, in all age groups, in all social classes, in rural and urban areas and is not related to fluoride in tap water.

The most common and universally accepted cause of tooth decay is too much sugar and refined foods found in many youngsters' diets these days, such as sweets, sugary drinks, cakes etc. Simply by cutting down on these, having a healthy diet and with good dental care, tooth decay can be noticeably reduced.

If fluoridation is forced upon us without consent, the new strategic health authority for Lancashire and Cumbria could very well stand accused of enforced medication on a mass scale and, thus, be in breach of human rights over the individual's freedom to control choice and standards of human health.

IAN DIXON, Grange Street, Clayton-le-Moors.