FLUORIDATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 5

FLUORIDATION

Sir.-Several correspondents question my view that most mothers cannot be bothered to give their children fluoride tablets every day. Perhaps I should have said, those mothers not gifted with better than average intelligence or education, that is, half of them, and especially those with several young children to care for, Your correspondents only reveal their qualification in one of these respects. The case of vitamin supplements is different because they can completely prevent the deficiency diseases, which also are more frightening than the familiar and relatively trivial tooth decay. . An educational campaign to those not on the water supply line would be comparatively cheap, but if public water supplies are not fluoridated people will naturally doubt if fluoride is really good for them. If some supplies are fluoridated while other towns rely on tablets, confusion and overdose will occur when people change their place of residence. If all public supplies are fluoridated and private water users take tablets the position will be clear. Fluoridation of salt or any food is impracticable because the dose cannot ‘be controlled closely enough. "Water Drinker" is quite mistaken if he believes that pure water contains only the compound HzO. It generally has far more solids in it than the 1 part in a million of fluorine and few of the other impurities benefit the health. His objections to the purification of sugar and flour are also mistaken. The valuable impurities lost in flour milling and sugar refining are, as regards the teeth, the fibre, which helps to clean them, and the water which dilutes the sugar. Thus "raw" sugar is as bad as refined. One must chew the sugar cane itself to avoid tooth decay.

R. B.

D. STOCKER

(Sydney).