Fluoridation
The first argument seems unsound to me. Mothers of children whose teeth decay most severely are usually ignorant of or not interested in nutrition and/or cannot afford excellent food. Furthermore, many intelligent, conscientious parents, doing everything they can, still cannot prevent their children’s teeth from decaying; sweets are given the children by well-meaning neighbors, store owners, and even strangers and are served at parties, cub scout meetings, and endless other places. The argument that fluoridation has not been studied sufficiently is probably true. Long-term “experiments,” however, have occurred naturally in dozens of places, some of which have been studied in great detail. In certain communities where the water contains as much as three or four parts of fluorine per million, there have been little or no mottling and no tooth decay. No other toxic effects have been found. In communities perhaps only a few miles away, almost no fluorine occurs in the water; tooth decay is rampant. The reason there seems little danger of toxicity from adding one part of fluorine per million (as is already being done in many communities) is that fluorine, like iodine, is excreted daily in the urine. Even when relatively large amounts are obtained for a time, fluorine is held temporarily in the body and laid down in the teeth and bones; when little or no fluorine is supplied, it is gradually withdrawn from the body and excreted.
My conviction on fluoridation is also emotional. My father used’ to make maple syrup almost every spring; I loved it and still do. Furthermore, I was an unhappy motherless child. Our general diet was atrocious enough, but in addition I ate far too much maple syrup to compensate for the love I craved and never got. Dozens of nights as a child I sobbed with seemingly unbearable pain from abscessed teeth or from decay which exposed the nerves. Thousands of youngsters, through no fault of their own, have screamed with similar pain, and thousands more will unless enough kind people try to prevent it. Furthermore, fluorine makes bones as well as teeth stronger. In every hospital in this country are old people-sad people-with not many years to live perhaps and not much to make them happy, lying motionless and uncomfortable hour after hour because of broken bones which should never have broken. You and I will be old some day, and we may fill those hospital beds; fluoridation of water might help us to enjoy our last years instead. My emotional conviction, therefore, which no one need accept unless he wishes to, is that every water supply in this United States should be fluoridated, even at the risk that some toxicity may occur.
There are a number of trace minerals which can be either valuable or harmful to health depending on the amount obtained. In fact, all trace minerals can be toxic if taken in excess. Arsenic, well known as a drug and a poison, may be important in human nutrition. Relatively large amounts are found in the liver and blood, particularly before birth. Aluminum occurs in the human body and in the bodies of animals which have never eaten food prepared in aluminum utensils; minute amounts of it, too, may be essential. Bromine is found in human blood; in a type of insanity known as manic depressive, the amount of bromine in the blood falls to half the normal quantity and increases only upon recovery from the disease. Tin, silver, nickel, and mercury are also found in human tissues; their functions, if any, are unknown.
The trace minerals, like calcium and iron, cannot be absorbed until they are first dissolved in the hydrochloric acid of the stomach. As we have seen, this acid is frequently undersupplied or absent. Poor absorption, therefore, can lead to deficiencies. This reason, however, is only a minor one.