I was surprised to read on the front page of last week’s Margaret River Mail that ‘fluoride reduces dental decay’.

Cripes, where has this informant been for the last three decades?

It has long been known that fluoride does much more harm than good to one’s body and teeth.

There are many and varied disadvantages to human health by using fluoride in our one water supply, some of which are: inactivates 62 enzymes, increases the ageing process, increases the incidence of cancer and tumour growth, disrupts the immune system, causing genetic damage, interrupts DNA repair-enzyme activity, increases arthritis, and is a systemic poison (www.mercola/com/199/feb/21/fluoride_controversy.htm).

If that’s not enough, fluoride also increases the risk of hip fracture (www.pslgroup.com.dg/16e7fe.htm); hypothyroidism (www.bruha/com/fluoride/index/html); and fluorosis.

Fluoride was banned in Austria after the world’s largest study of 400,000 students revealed decay increased with the use of fluoride in the drinking water (Teotia SOS & M ‘Fluoride 59066, 1994), and fluorosis (tooth reduction requiring costly porcelain caps) showed significantly higher during a 50-year fluoridation study (Ziegelbacker, R ‘Fluoridation in Europe’, 31[3] 1998).

In its first publication dated November 1, 1999, Parents for Fluoride-Poisoned Children states ‘We have learned that one child dies every minute due to complications associated with (this) fluorine-induced iodine deficiency and that this is a problem affecting a third of the population, perhaps more’.

It doesn’t seem, then, that fluoride is a healthy option for our body, or to reduce dental decay (which we can do anyway if we floss and brush correctly).

Besides, there are already adequate sources of fluoride in our diet without using it in toothpaste and the water supply (tea and Coca-Cola to name but two).