Milwaukee Ald. James Bohl wants the City of Milwaukee to stop fluoridating its water. He says fluoridation is ineffective and potentially dangerous to those who ingest it. He brought in several witnesses to testify to a Common Council committee meeting on Thursday, and he has a 2-and-a-half inch thick binder filled with documents that support his position.
But with all due respect to Bohl's impressive passion on this issue, until real, peer-reviewed scientific studies done in the United States show that fluoridation doesn't work and is dangerous, we'll stick with the consensus of the U.S. health care establishment. And that is that fluoridation is safe in modest amounts and it works to help reduce tooth decay, especially in urban areas and among populations that don't receive adequate dental care.
We urge the council to stick with the practice of adding fluoride to the city's water supply.
Fluoridation is not a panacea, nor is it a substitute for visits to the dentist, brushing, flossing and proper diet. But it is an important aid in reducing tooth decay, and for some does provide almost the only protection they get. It's especially important for children but a report published in 2007 involving researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Division of Oral Health; the Defense Resources Management Institute, Naval Postgraduate School, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Science Foundation found that fluoride also prevents cavities and tooth decay among adults of all ages.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called fluoridation of municipal water supplies, begun in the 1950s, one of the 10 major health advancements of the 20th century. A former surgeon general of the United States has called fluoridation one of the most successful public health programs in history.
According to the state Department of Health Services, studies have repeatedly shown that drinking water with the optimal amount of fluoridation can reduce the incidence of tooth decay by about 30%. Monica Hebl, past president of the Wisconsin Dental Association, told us this week that despite the addition of fluoride to toothpaste and other improvements in dental care fluoridation "is still something we need to do."
She also pointed out, as did the DHS statement, that it's a very cost-effective health care measure: every dollar put into fluoridation saves $38 in dental care expenditures.
Bohl and Paul Connett, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network and a chemist by trade, told us Wednesday that fluoridation has been associated with cancer and that studies in China and elsewhere have proved how dangerous it is. They also said the health care establishment has a vested interest in maintaining that fluoridation serves a public health purpose.
But their arguments, no doubt sincere, aren't based on much more than anecdote, conjecture and studies that aren't particular relevant to the U.S. practice of community water fluoridation.
Hundreds of studies carried out in many different countries in the past 50 years have proved the effectiveness of fluoridation, according to the DHS statement. In addition, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Dental Association all endorse community water fluoridation.
In Wisconsin, a few of the many organizations that support fluoridation include the State Medical Society of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Public Health Association, the Wisconsin Dental Association, the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians.
That may be the so-called health care establishment, but it's a more impressive and convincing array than Bohl's witnesses and his binder. Until he and the rest of the anti-fluoride crowd make a dent in that establishment, we'll stick with the experts.
Should Milwaukee end the practice of adding flouride to its water? To be considered for publication as a letter to the editor, e-mail your opinion to the Journal Sentinel editorial department.