Water fluoridation delivers real health benefits

MICHAEL DORGAN (March 7) claims fluoride in our water is a health hazard.

Fluoridation of water actually improves our dental health — this is a widely accepted fact.

The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention considers fluoridation of water “one of the greatest achievements in public health in the 20th century”. I am grateful that I live in a first world country where we go to the trouble and expense of fluoridating our public water supplies. Fluoridation has been implemented in many countries worldwide for over 50 years and the effects extensively studied. For every study claiming a link between fluorides and cancer/impotence/insanity, there are at least 10 studies that refute these claims.

In some people’s world, mobile phone masts cause cancer, power lines cause cancer, the MMR vaccine causes autism and water fluoridation causes cancer. But I’m glad to live in a society that weighs up scientific evidence when making policy decisions, and where mobile phone masts deliver broadband, power lines deliver energy, and vaccines and fluoridation deliver health benefits for the enrichment of our lives.

Gerald Duffy

Pouladuff Road

Cork