The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7269 p449
4 October 2003

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  Prescription charges
  Community pharmacy
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  Fluoridation
  The Society

Letters to the Editor

Fluoridation

Chlorination of water supply is not medication

From Mr R. B. A. Johns, MRPharmS

As a former resident of Birmingham I have a clear recollection of the introduction, without prior public debate, of fluoride into the water supply. Then, as now, I resented it on the principle that where a means of voluntary medication is freely available to the public, compulsion should be eschewed as exemplifying the repugnant notion that “Whitehall knows best”.

I believe that in such circumstances the proper role of the state is to inform, if appropriate to advise, but never to coerce. Your correspondent B. Whittaker (PJ, 27 September, p404) correctly reports the benefits of drinking fluoridated water and those are not in dispute.

However, in my opinion he weakens, not strengthens, his case by reductio ad absurdum. It is obvious that chlorination and other processes designed to render natural water potable constitute neither “mass” nor any other form of medication, which by definition is a procedure intended to reduce or rectify an undesirable condition, in this instance dental caries. I therefore find it disappointing that a person trained in one of the scientific disciplines should bolster his argument using a questionable debating technique.

Richard Johns
Boston, Lincolnshire

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