Water fluoridation is safe

Page contents: Water fluoridation is safe | Opposition to water fluoridation

Water fluoridation is safe

Fluoride is added to the water at fluoridation plants specially designed to add carefully controlled amounts. The total amount of fluoride in the water is monitored regularly both at the fluoridation plant and at household taps by local water authorities.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is Australia’s peak health organisation. To be acceptable to the NHMRC, a chemical added to drinking water must not be toxic at recommended maximum levels. For fluoridating drinking water, the NHMRC recommends sodium fluoride, sodium fluorosilicate and fluorosilicic acid. These fluoride compounds are added to water supplies in a controlled manner in amounts scientifically shown to prevent tooth decay.

The fluoride added to water comes from natural rock. During the extraction process, a gas is produced. Gases are difficult to handle, so a piece of equipment called a scrubber can be used to convert the fluoride into a liquid or powder form which can be added to water supplies in a carefully controlled way. Scrubbers can also be used to reduce atmospheric pollution by gases, so some people think that because a scrubber is used, fluoride must be harmful. This is not true. Many substances we use every day are very beneficial in small amounts, but may be harmful in large amounts––examples include salt and even water itself. To help protect your teeth against decay, only very small amounts of fluoride are needed in the water (about 1 mg/L, which means that each part of fluoride is diluted in one million parts of water).

The amount of fluoride added to your garden or farm from fluoridated water is very small––the amount of fluoride found naturally in rocks and soil is about 300 to 700 times higher than the amount added to water. Sea water typically contains fluoride at 1.2–1.4 mg/L.

Opposition to water fluoridation

Some people believe that it is not ethical to impose anything upon individuals who do not want it. For example, when compulsory wearing of seat belts was first proposed, some people complained that it restricted individual rights and freedoms. With time, the benefits of reduced injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes became clear.

Water fluoridation has been endorsed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. While it is acknowledged that there will always be some people who do not agree with water fluoridation, it is a safe and effective way to help protect teeth throughout life. Furthermore, it allows everybody to benefit, regardless of age, education
or income level.

In 2006, the World Health Organization, the World Dental Federation and the International Association for Dental Research confirmed that ‘universal access to fluoride for dental health is a part of the basic human right to health.’

Other authors have stated:

In considering the ethics of fluoridation… we should ask not are we entitled to impose fluoridation on unwilling people, but are the unwilling people entitled to impose the risks, damage and costs of failure to fluoridate on the community at large.

Professor John Harris, Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester, 1989. (accessed from the British Fluoridation Society website, http://www.bfsweb.org/ethics.html).

top of page