The British Fluoridation Society



»	The dental benefits of water fluoridation

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»	Support - including public opinion surveys

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Technical aspects of water fluoridation

Testing for health effects of fluoride compounds

The claim is sometimes made that no health studies exist on the fluoride compounds used in water fluoridation. This suggestion is flawed and misleading.
It is true that studies are not done of the health effects on the general population of exposure to the concentrated compounds used in the treatment of public water supplies including fluoride. (Though we know a great deal about the risks to workers in the water industry of exposure to such chemicals, and Health and Safety requirements lay down stringent safety measures to prevent and deal with accidents.)
The general public are not directly exposed to the concentrated compounds, they are exposed to the finished product - water treated with a number of chemical compounds, including fluoride.
To achieve the optimal concentration of one part of fluoride per million parts of water (1ppm), the concentrated fluoride compounds are diluted approximately 170,000 times. It is therefore absurd to suggest that the safety of the compounds should be assessed by testing them on humans at a concentration 170,000 times stronger than that at which it is intended they be ingested.
European standards contain requirements for product purity. Furthermore, the high dilution factor involved in fluoridation ensures that the levels of any impurities added as a result of fluoridation are very small and have no discernable impact on toxicity of drinking water (eg fluoridation using hexafluorosilicic acid adds less than 1% of the maximum permitted levels of trace metals).
In respect of its effects on the general public, it is the health effects of exposure to the finished product - fluoridated water - that is relevant, and this has been studied exhaustively for over 50 years.
The question of the safety of water fluoridation has been answered to the satisfaction of reputable scientific bodies (examples include the World Health Organisation, the Royal College of Physicians, the British Medical Association) who are convinced by the evidence from the many studies conducted worldwide over a period of at least 50 years that fluoridated drinking water reduces tooth decay and has no adverse health effects.


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The British Fluoridation Society provides evidence based information on fluoride and all aspects of water fluoridation including water fluoridation and infant formula, the extent of water fluoridation in the UK and worldwide, legal aspects of water fluoridation in the UK, the ethics of water fluoridation, support for water fluoridation including public opionon surveys, the cost and cost effectiveness of water fluoridation, water fluoridation and the environment, UK Politics and water fluoridation, the dental benefits of water fluoridation for both children and adults, the safety of fluoridation, dental health, health inequalities, and dental fluorosis.

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