No firm evidence to show fluoridation is better for children’s teeth

DOCTOR Seamus O’Hickey of the Irish Expert Body on Fluorides and Health (Letters, April 13) criticised my letter (April 11) on the serious adverse effects of water fluoridation on people’s health.

Firstly, he says the fluoride added to our water is “a primary product derived from fluorspar (a mineral containing between 30% and 98 % calcium fluoride)”.

It is true that fluorspar or fluorite does occur naturally and the “primary product” derived from it is hydrofluorosilicic acid, a highly corrosive substance and an industrial byproduct from the phosphate fertiliser industry which also has to be tested for arsenic, copper, lead and uranium, among other substances.

Dr O’Hickey is wrong when he asserts that dental fluorosis is only an aesthetic problem and the only known side-effect of water fluoridation. It is the first visible sign of systemic toxicity in the body caused by excessive fluoride.

The North-South Oral Health Survey (2002), published by the Department of Health and Children, revealed that dental fluorosis in 15-year-olds now affects eight in 20 of them — up from one in 20 in 1984.

Water fluoridation is opposed by the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association and 97% of western Europe has chosen fluoride-free water because of growing concern within the scientific community that excess fluoride contributes to conditions such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hip fractures, Alzheimer’s and bone cancer, among other serious conditions.

Dr O’Hickey refers to the US public health service and the US surgeon-general supporting water fluoridation. This should come as no surprise as the US has a policy of supporting water fluoridation.

Cities all over that country purchase hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh pollution concentrate — hydrofluorosilicic acid — to fluoridate water. Significantly though, in November 2006, the American Dental Association advised parents against giving babies fluoridated water.

Contrary to what Dr O’Hickey believes, there is no sound scientific evidence that water fluoridation has improved dental health in children.

In fact, proponents of fluoridation have failed to establish a significant clinical difference in dental decay between children living in fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities in Ireland and throughout non-fluoridated Europe.

And a number of research studies have shown that dental decay has not increased when water fluoridation has been halted in communities in Finland, Cuba, the former East Germany and Canada.

Sean Fleming

13 Cuan Glas

Bishop O’Donnell Road

Galway