Fluoride in Drinking Water

Add this to my series of examples of the battle between public outcry and the scientific evidence.  Here is an anthology of 13 articles on the subject of fluoridated drinking water published by the Center for Fluoride Research Analysis.  They have gathered in a single document “the official policy statements and consumer information on fluoride from the nation’s leading scientific and advocacy organizations that support community water fluoridation.”  (Additional support can be found on the new ADA website.)

A nice summary appears in the AARP document:  “In spite of its well-documented effectiveness and safety, 100 million persons in the United States remained without fluoridated water at the beginning of the twenty-first century.” 

Why would this be?  Part can be attributed to water supplies from private wells, but part is due to negative public reaction to fluoridation.  Another group of well-meaning people stare scientific evidence in the face and stir up opposition based on their personal interpretation of the studies.  As the article from the American Council on Science and Health puts it:  “The combination of a scientifically unsophisticated public and the profusion of easily accessible crackpot information on the Internet is indeed a prescription for disaster.”  The American Cancer Society article reinforces this:  “A review of more than 50 population-based studies…does not support the hypothesis of an association between fluoride exposure and increased cancer risk in humans.”

If so many reputable organizations promote the addition of fluoride to drinking water, where does the opposition come from?  There are, of course, the conspiracy theorists who once characterized it as a communist plot, but many have sincere and well thought out arguments.  The questions we must always ask about such information are: what are the sources, what are their qualifications, and do they have an outside agenda or possible conflict of interests?

Above all we must resist the temptation to stampede into action or opposition without full and reliable information.  See other instances of potential damage from public outcry in such cases as  the “pink slime” (April 2, 2012) and mad cow disease (April 30, 2012) controversies.