Fluoridation - Unethical, Risky, Benefits Doubtful, Poor Most Harmed

Fluoridation is an "unacceptable risk," says Public Health Professor Niyi Awofeso in the Journal Public Health Ethics, August 2012. He writes, "There is insufficient ethical justification for artificial water fluoridation."

Awofeso, a University professor in Australia, who published over 70 peer-reviewed academic papers in respected journals, says:

1) No evidence supports the assertion that artificial water fluoridation reduces social disparities in cavity incidence

2) Fluoridation's effectiveness is questionable

3) Poor children are more apt to develop dental fluorosis (discolored teeth)

4) Two potential adverse effects of fluoride, hypothyroidism and bone fractures, have been reported in scholarly journals

5) Fluoridation chemicals (fluosilicic acid) are contaminated with lead, arsenic and mercury, major health hazards for which no safe levels exist.

Awofeso concludes: "It would appear that the effectiveness of artificial water fluoridation in the 21^st century is at best questionable, given its fixed-dose medication approach, quality of fluoride used and its adverse impact on calcium metabolism and largely insignificant differences in dental caries experience between areas with artificial water fluoridation and those without."

Awofeso writes: "Rather than addressing the legitimate concerns of the public with regards to the ethics of fluoridation, pro-fluoridation activists dismiss anti-water fluoridation advocates as misinformed trouble makers intent on undermining public health."

He speculates that pro-fluoridation advocacy groups won't concede 'victory' to opposing groups, who they deride as ignorant, to save face or that it's the "general inertia with policy disinvestment."

Despite assurances that artificial water fluoridation chemicals, hydrofluosilicic acid, act the same as naturally occurring calcium fluoride, Awofeso explains that calcium fluoride does not inhibit a tooth's calcium absorption but fluosilicic acid does "thus annulling the dental caries prevention effects of water fluoridated with fluosilicic acid."

"The increasing prominence of anti-water fluoridation groups globally, greater appreciation of natural and artificial fluoride sources and likely dangers of excessive fluoride consumption among some population(s) necessitate(s) a thorough analysis of the merits of water fluoridation," he writes.

Reference: "Ethics of Artificial Water Fluoridation in Australia"

Whole Study: http://files.meetup.com/1755143/Public%20Health%20Ethics-2012-Awofeso-phe_phs016.pdf