Introduction

Water fluoridation is the practice of adding fluoride compounds to water with the intended purpose of reducing tooth decay in the general population.

10% of the UK population, mostly in West Midlands and Tyneside, have a fluoridated water supply.

The Manchester area is not fluoridated at present despite the North West having worst tooth decay figures in the UK, however, it is under consideration. A consultation on fluoridation is expected in Autumn 2007.

Pros and Cons

There seem to be 2 arguments

• Anti-fluoridationists - National Pure Water Association

  Their concerns include dental fluorosis, a staining of the teeth, brittle bones particularly in older people and cancer.

• Pro-fluoridationists - British Fluoridation Society

  They advocate improved dental well-being. BMA and Dental Associations in favour.

Medical evidence

The British Medical Association (BMA) believes there is no convincing evidence of any adverse risk to human health by the introduction of water fluoridation. Evidence through scientific studies shows that fluoride in water, at or around one part per million, does not have any effect on the health of the body other than reducing decay in teeth. This view is supported by the World Health Organisation, the Royal College of Physicians, and the British Dental Association, among others.

After 40 years of artificial fluoridation in the UK, the BMA are not aware of evidence of harm demonstrated in those areas, other than dental fluorosis in a small number of children. Neither the York review nor the Medical Research Council Working Group could find convincing evidence of musculo-skeletal disease, kidney disease, infertility, central nervous system damage or damage in the thyroid gland.(Medical Research Council working group report "Water Fluoridation and Health, September 2002"). The MRC report does recommend further epidemiological studies on dental caries, fluorosis,the effect of social class and bone health.

Social Factors

Tooth decay is a significant problem in the UK, particularly in socially deprived areas. Dental health inequalities are widening and severe tooth decay is strongly associated with child poverty. Children from less well-off backgrounds may have five times more tooth decay than those in the highest social classes. Children in non-fluoridated under-privileged areas of the UK are more likely to have teeth extracted due to tooth decay than those in either affluent, or similar, but fluoridated areas.

5-year-olds in non-fluoridated Manchester suffer almost two and a half times more tooth decay than those in fluoridated Birmingham and almost three times more than their peers in affluent West Surrey.

Notes

The Water Act 2003 amends the Water Industries Act 1991 that allowed water companies to accede to health authority requests to fluoridate but did not oblige them to do so.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Primary Care and Public Health in its April 2003 report recommended that, as matter of public dental health policy, targeted water fluoridation be started as a legitimate and effective means of tackling dental health inequalities.

The following water companies fluoridate their water: Anglian Water Services Ltd., Northumbrian Water Ltd., South Staffordshire Water plc, Severn Trent plc and United Utilities Water plc.

Read the Wikipedia on fluoridation for another viewpoint that should be considered perhaps as non peer-reviewed consensus opinion.