Dentist Replies To Critics Of Fluoridation Of Water

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28080, 22 September 1956, Page 4

Dentist Replies To Critics Of Fluoridation Of Water

“Would great cities ike Chicago <4.500.000), Philadelphia (2,500.000), Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Washington, San Francisco. Milwaukee. Buffalo, and St. Louis introduce fluoridation for their entire communities if it were not a safe and established public health measure, or in the face of opposition of any scientific value whatsoever?” says Mr J. Ferris Fuller, 8.D.5., FD.S.R.C.S. (Edin). representative of the New Zealand Dental Association on the Health Department fluoridation committee, in reply to letters printed in the correspondence columns of “The Press.”

“First it is well to look at the authorities quoted by some of the correspondents,” he says. “F. W. Stevens quotes C. E. Perkins* This man, one-time press agent for a Washington hotel, sets himself up as an expert on fluoride and cancer research, whereas the United States Public Health Service announced on January 29, 1956, after careful investigation, that, as far as is known, this man has done no research. In a State Court of Appeals a Judge said of his evidence that: ‘his knowledge of the subject (fluoridation) here in dispute is like his cure for cancer—impulsive, erratic and unsound.’

“F. W. Stevens also quotes Dr. E. H. Bronner. who is not a physician and whose title is self-assumed. More than that, a public announcement was made in the United States that the man is an escapee from the Elgin Illinois State Hospital for the mentally

“D. Davey cites Miss van de Vere as an expert. She is another selfappointed expert in various fields of science whose credentials do not stand investigation. She married Harold Schwarm. a New Britain dishwasher posing as ‘Dr. Reginald van de Vere.’ Afterwards he masqueraded as the Prince de Chateroux de Bussigny de Bourbon in New York society, with Miss van de Vere enacting the role of the ‘Princess’ until the hoax was discovered “Wild Opinions” “These serve as examples of some of the people whose wild opinions against fluoridation are freely quoted,” says Mr Fuller. “The story of people such as Miss van de Vere would be funny but for the fact that the benefits of the greatest dental public health measure in history are denied children because of their propaganda “What are the facts? One of the most thorough public health studies in history has just been concluded at Newburgh. New York, where the water supply was adjusted 10 years ago to a fluoride content of one part per 1.000.000. the water in neighbouring Kingston remaining untreated. “Before fluoridation began, it was established that dental decay was the same in each place. Exhaustive dental examinations were carried out each successive year on groups of children between six and 16 years of age. and a comparison made. The final results show that at the age of six to nine years, children at Newburgh who have had fluoridated water all their lives now have 58 per cent less dental decay than their counterparts at Kingston. Even those aged 16 whose teeth were calcified in 1945 have 41 per cent, less dental decay. The children were examined for gingival (gum) and periodontal disease, those in the fluoridated areas being slightly better than those in the non-fluoridated area.

“On the medical side, in 1944 a largescale study was planned by a committee of experts on child health, the objective being to bring to light any possible ill-effect of fluoride on general health. This was planned even though there was abundant research evidence that peonle living al] their lives in areas where there was a natural fluoride content several times higher than that proposed for fluoridation were no different in general health from those in fluoridefree areas, and even though there was no scientific reason to suppose that fluoride added to water would differ in its action from that which naturally.

“Thoughout the 10-year period the annual examinations included a careful clinical examination, a comparison of medical histories, height and weight measurements, blood counts, urine tests and eye and ear tests,” Mr Fuller says. “In addition, X-ray examination was carried out on the hands and knees of these children and. at the final examination, on the lumbar spine as well. The radiographs were interpreted by a professor of clinical, pediatrics who was unaware of the area in which the various children lived.

“The results of the clinical and laboratory examinations showed no difference of medical significance between the Newburgh and Kingston groups. In the interpretation of the radiographs, special attention was paid to bone density, because osteosclerosis, especially of the lumbar spine, is re- | puted by opponents to be the earliest

sign of chronic fluoride intoxication, but no difference was found in the two cities either in bone density or bone age. “Still-birth and infant mortality rates were also compared and finally a study was made of crude death rates from cancer, cardiovascular and renal disease. There was no difference between the two communities in any respect. “The results were sufficient for the American Medical Association to give its unqualified support to fluoridation as a safe and effective public health measure,” Mr Fuller says. “Former critics such as Howard V. Smith, an agricultural chemist of standing, (quoted by ‘Flambeau’) who feared that the children’s teeth might be mottled, have publicly withdrawn their opposition. “As Wellington’s ‘Dominion’ said on September 6 in a leading article headed ‘Lets get on with Fluoridation,’ the New Zealand public ‘should not be apathetic, still less hostile, about the introduction of what authorities in many countries regard as the greatest dental public health measure that has even been available.’ Or as America’s great weekly, the ‘Saturday Evening Post,’ said recently: ‘Tooth decay is civilisation’s most prevalent disease. Fluoridation to date is the only method science has found, and proved, to limit this disease in great masses of people. It promises a miracle which is already too long delayed,’ ” Mr Fuller concludes.