Fluoridation

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 12

Fluoridation

Sir, — Swedish medical and dental opinion about fluoridation, unrelated to the political decision communicated by Mr Colquhoun, emerges from the summary of the Swedish Fluoride Commission’s 1981 report. The Swedish Parliament appointed seven commissioners representing the five political parties. Advising the Commission were four medical and three dental experts. The Commission’s majority finding was against fluoridation, but two commissioners and six of the experts dissented, stating: “Water fluoridation is far more efficient as a means of caries prevention for the whole population than are the fluoride (procedures) hitherto employed in Sweden. It reaches socially and medically disadvantaged groups, handicapped persons, the aged and the sick, who are particularly liable to suffer from caries. These groups have difficulty in protecting themselves to the same extent as those who are socially and medically better off ... There is no scientific literature to show that drinking water containing about 1 ppm fluoride entails medical or ecological hazards.” —

Yours, etc., DENNIS HORNE. August 9, 1985.