Flouride in water

Peter Black has written a very good post about the scientific evidence on putting flouride in the water supply. Basically, there isn’t much of it and what there is is pretty poor, with also some evidence that it can actually cause other health problems.

I’ve always by instinct opposed the idea of tampering with the water supply in this way, but never had a chance to do the research to find out more about it. I suppose I am one of the lucky ones as I have very good teeth and have never had any fillings at all. That’s partly luck, (according to my dentist my teeth have a high calcium content, which means that I am starting off in a better situation than most anyway), but also because I was brought up to know that I must clean my teeth twice a day and that I shouldn’t eat too many sweets. I know that many people aren’t, but that is where public health campaigns from the government do have a role and is a far better solution than tampering with the water supply.

I also feel slightly protective of water supplies as I think that my local water supply where I live tastes better than most other parts of the country. Sheffield has incredibly soft water thanks to it running through millstone grit on the moors above the city where the reservoirs are, and it is noticeable after having lived in the south of England how different it tastes. It is also, of course, the unique taste of the water supply that makes Henderson’s Relish taste so good! I expect flouridation is unlikely to change the taste of water, but it gives me an instinctive reluctance to tamper further with what feels so pure in the first place.