October 24, 2000
Kamloops Daily News



With 800 million people worldwide benefiting from fluorides,
it's hard to believe that anyone, especially city councillor
Pat Wallace, still has doubts.  It's important for civic
leaders to have informed opinions.

Councillors shouldn't rely on a few dozen studies to make
up their minds about the effects of water fluoridation.  The
University of York looked at the big-picture.  They examined
214 studies done in thirty countries, spanning a period of
fifty years.  Here's what they found.

1. Water fluoridation works.  Fluoridation reduces the
number of cavities and missing teeth in children, and
increases the proportion of children with no tooth decay at
all.

2. Fluorides in high concentrations in water, especially
when combined with other fluoride sources can cause
fluorosis, a discolouration of teeth.  Fluorosis ranges from
a tiny white flecks in mild cases to brown spots where
fluoride ingestion is high.  Fluorosis is a cosmetic
problem, not a health problem.

3. Fluoridation reduces health inequalities.  This simple,
inexpensive remedy reduces the dental health gap between 
affluent families and  children living in poverty.

4. There is no association between fluoridation and hip
fractures or any other bone fractures.

5. There is no link between water fluoridation and overall
cancer incidence and mortality.  This was also true for bone
cancers.

You can read the report from the University of York, called
"Fluoridation of Drinking Water: a Systematic Review of its
Efficacy and Safety" at 
www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/fluorid.htm.  But if you don't have
time to read the report, see what the experts have to say. 
And go to the best.

The Canadian Dental Association supports fluoridation of
municipal water supplies as "a safe, economical and
effective means of preventing dental caries in all age
groups."  It adds that "fluoride levels in community water
supplies should be monitored" to ensure consistent 
concentrations.  Excessive levels of water fluoridation,
plus ingestion other sources, can cause fluorosis. 

The World Health Organization favours water fluoridation as
a means of reducing dental cavities.  Fluoride
concentrations should be approximately 1 part per million
(ppm) to be effective.  But, in some countries that have no
central water distribution system, fluoridated salt is
recommended (much in the way that iodized salt is here). 
The U.S. Centres for Disease Control recently named
fluoridation of drinking water as one of the 10 most
successful public health measures in this century.

Some opponents of fluoridation say that is that we shouldn't
be forced to take fluorides if we don't want them.  But even
if our water weren't fluoridated, we would still get natural
fluorides from our water.  All the water in the world is
naturally fluoridated.  Surface water has less and ground
water has more.  In Kamloops, the concentration is only
about one-half that required to be effective.

The ubiquitous nature of fluorides can create problems when
studying its effect on decay reduction.  Partial exposure to
fluorides can have partial benefits.  Also,  families who
move between fluoridated and nonfluoridated communities
carry the benefits, or lack of benefits, with them.

Dr. Christopher Clark, from the faculty of Dentistry at UBC,
discovered flaws in earlier studies which were attempting to
find the effects of tooth sealants in decay reduction. 
Researchers had failed to take into account the length of
time that subjects had lived in the area under study.

Dr. Clark found that life-long exposure to fluorides had the
most dramatic effect.  He studied decay reduction in Kelowna
were  water is fluoridated (1.2ppm) compared with Vernon
where no fluorides were added (0.1 ppm).  He found that
long-time Kelowna users had 35% fewer cavities than in
Vernon.

On a personal level, I have seen the benefits of water
fluoridation.  When I moved here twenty years ago, I was
pleased to learn that Kamloops' water was fluoridated.  That
optimism was realized when my son had no dental cavities
before the age of eighteen.  At that  age, my mouth was full
of cavities.   I grew up in Edmonton where the  water wasn't
fluoridated.  Of course, one anecdote is not scientific
proof.

Perhaps world-wide studies showing the benefits of fluorides
are wrong.  Maybe the World Health Organization is actually
promoting world illness.  Maybe health officials who sing
the praises of fluorides have been bought off by the
fertilizer manufacturers who supply the fluorides.  And
maybe dentists are promoting harmful tooth poisons in order
increase their business.  But I don't think so. 

go back to my Columns in the