RESEARCH SUPPORT FOR FLUORIDATION

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 11

RESEARCH SUPPORT FOR FLUORIDATION

Information given by Dr. c R. J. Berry and W. Trillwood * in the “British Medical * Journal” on the effect of flouride on the growth of j human cells “in vitro” isola- f ted from the body “is irreie- ( vant to the matter of fluori- , dation, which has been shown ( by careful and numerous | studies to be devoid of harm- ] ful effects,” says Dr. Muriel E. Bell in the “New Zealand , Medical Journal.” Dr. Bell ] was writing as director of , the Nutrition Research Unit , of the New Zealand Medical , Research Council Dunedin. “No-one now disputes the advantages to the developing teeth of having fluoride at a concentration of one part a million in the water-supply, advantages that are well illustrated in the reduction in incidence of decay in permanent teeth of children at Hastings after eight years ard a half of fluoridation,” say Dr. Bell. “Issue Taken” “It is the physiological and medical aspects of fluoridation on which issue is taken by opponents of this public health measure, and though there is abundant evidence that no harm has come in localities where Providence supplied water containing sufficient of this trace element, arguments based on supposed deleterious effects continue to cloud the issue. "The latest of these has been a letter by Berry and Trillwood in which ‘in vitro’ experiments are reported where fluoride diminished growth. ‘ln vitro’ studies fall short of imitating what actually happens 'in vivo’ (in the living body),” states the letter. Results Given “L. Singer and W. D. Armstrong found that the amount of fluoride in the plasma of human beings remained at virtually the same level (around 0.16 parts a million) whether the subject’s watersupply contained 0.15 or 1.1

or 2.5 p.pjn. In persons habitually consuming water at 5.4 p.p.m., the plasma level was at 0.26 p.p.m. “When one milligram of fluoride was taken by mouth the plasma values determined at 20 to 220 minutes afterwards in four samples showed no elevation; nor was there any variation after meals. “The mean fluoride content of patients with carinoma, heart disease, infections, kidney diseases, metabolic diseases, and certain other conditions was unaffected. Hyperparathyroidism and multiple myeloma gave raised values: these were interpreted to be the result of the demineralising process,” according to the letter.