Both Newbrun and Friedman’s letters accuse me of opposing community water fluoridation (CWF). This was not the point of my article. My article examines the arguments being put forward by scientists in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, to understand how the debate overCWFplayedout.Despite attempts to make science as bias-free as possible, historians and philosophers of science have shown that scienti...

Site-specific cancer mortality data for 20 United States cities have been abstracted from United States Government publications to explore further the hypothesis that fluoridation of water supplies causes cancer. Changes in mortality (standardised for age, sex, and ethnic group) between 1958-62 and 1968-72 in 10 fluoridated and 10 non-fluoridated United States cities have been examined. Of the ...

Dental caries remains a significant public health problem in many countries and an important cause of health inequalities. In England, almost a third of 5-year-old children and over two-fifths of 15-year-old teenagers are affected, and substantially higher rates of disease are seen among deprived communities. Dental disease can cause impaired nutrition and growth, 3 and is one of the most commo...

The US Public Health Service has finalized its recommendation relating to community water fluoridation (Federal Panel on Community Water Fluoridation, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). It recommends an optimal concentration of 0.7 mg/l F based on their argument that this concentration provides the best balance of protection from dental caries while limiting the risk of dental f...

T HE DENTAL benefits from drinking water containing about 1 part per million (1 ppm = 1 mg/I) of fluoride ion during childhood are well known. The safety of adjusting public supplies of drinking water to this content of fluoride in temperate climates (or to about 0.7 ppm in hotter areas) is universally accepted among reputable professional groups with an interest in the problem of dental caries...

Public water fluoridation is a common policy for improving dental health. Fluoride replaces the hydroxyls of hydroxyapatite, thereby improving the strength of tooth enamel, but this process can also occur in other active calcifications. This paper studies the effects of water fluoridation during the course of vascular calcification in renal disease. The effect of fluoride was studied in vitro a...

UNLABELLED Fluoridation of the public water supplies is recognized as among the top ten public health achievements of the twentieth century. However, the positive aspects of this measure depend on the maintenance of fluoride concentrations within adequate levels. OBJECTIVE To report the results of seven years of external control of the fluoride (F) concentrations in the public water supply in...

Data on caries increments and costs of prevention programs are presented as background information for participants in the workshop. Estimates of annual caries increments were derived from control groups in clinical trials, epidemiologic studies, and national surveys. Cost data were obtained from dental public health directors, program administrators, fluoridation engineers, and water plant ope...