FLUORIDATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 5

FLUORIDATION

Sir.-Dr. Turbott did not mention that at least five cities in the United States which undertook fluoridation of their water supplies have now abandoned the experiments, nor that the dental profession in that country is emphatically against artificial fluoridation. It is true that fluorine occurring naturally in water and in such foods as fish, tea and sunflower seeds appears to reduce the incidence of dental caries. But the fluorine being added to drinking water by local authorities in various parts of the world (in Havelock North and Hastings, too) is a by-product of the manufacture of aluminium. Seldom has there been such a blatantly undemocratic move. "Purification" of our water supplies is a completely different matter. Purification and fluoridation cannot be compared. Our dental clinics advocate a diet which, if faithfully carried out, will keep our children’s teeth sound. This is especially true if the mother has observed a similar diet for at least a year before becoming pregnant, since the foundations of good dental health are laid in the first three months of pregnancy. The fact that New Zealanders’ teeth are so poor is directly related to a lack of will-power in saying "No" to all the sweets, white sugar, white flour goods and similar rubbish which comprises 90 per cent of the aver-

age diet.

MARY I.

STROOBANT

Auckland

(Abridged.-Ed.)

Sir-When Dr. H. B. Turbott declared that "the law allows a local authority to treat a water supply .. . for the advancement of the people’s health," he presumably was referring to the section of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1933, which provides, "The Council may do all things necessary from time to time for the preservation of the public health and convenience." To the average person, "necessary from time to time" means "occasional

measures demanded by circumstances which may arise," and was never intended to authorise the long-term use of the water supply as a vehicle for administering medicine for this or that specific disease. To dose the whole of the people, without their consent, with a drug intended :for only the children’s teeth is a clumsy and high-handed procedure. The Department of Health will need to devise some selective and optional method, such as the issue of monthly supplies of fluoride tablets to parents. It can be done.

ADIT

(Havelock North).

Sir,- Your correspondent W. H. Thomas tells us that sodium fluoride is a poison. Many medicines and antidotes are poisons. Now because it is necessary to prescribe a certain drug for one section of a community who are suffering froma certain complaint, should it be universally prescribed? Are all the adults who have artificial teeth to be compelled to take sodium fluoride because it will help to save the children’s teeth from decay? Medical doctors consider that fluoride hardens the teeth and thus renders them less liable to decay. If it is sufficiently powerful to harden teeth it must have an injurious effect on the more delicate organs of the body. When parents allow their children to indulge in an excess of sweets and soft drinks as to make a visit to the dental clinic necessary, then surely is the time for the doctor to prescribe a daily dose of fluoride for such children. A young person is far more able, through exercise, to counteract the ill effects of the drug on other organs than is an elderly person. It’s a nice’ state of affairs in a democratic country to have a poison forced down one’s throat.

WATER-DRINKER

(Wellington),