MAILBAG:

Editor Tony Dodero advocates fluoridation (“Fluoride plot doubtful,” Oct. 31) because he trusts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), who pat themselves on the back by proclaiming fluoridation as one of their 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.

Yes, it’s quite an achievement to sprinkle fluoride drugs into two-thirds of U.S. public water supplies, afflicting 170 million people, when 60 years of research fails to prove fluoridation is safe or effective.

Since the CDC is apparently the guidance for your editorial, this is also what the CDC tells us:

 Trace amounts of arsenic are present in the fluoridation chemicals.

 “Fluoride’s predominant effect is post eruptive and topical fluoride works primarily after teeth have erupted ”

 The fluoride concentration in saliva that bathes the teeth topically is too low to have any benefit.

 “Higher concentration of enamel fluoride is not necessarily more efficacious in preventing dental caries.”

 Up to 51% of U.S. schoolchildren already have dental fluorosis [discolored teeth] with up to 4% having severe fluorosis. Dental fluorosis is a sign of over-fluoridation of the teeth when they were forming.

 “Since the early 1980s, most fluoride additives used in the United States have been derived from the FSA [fluosilicic acid] produced as a co-product in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizer.”

 Avoid mixing fluoridated water into concentrated infant formula to prevent discoloring babies’ new teeth.

 Some of the fluoridation products come from Asia [possibly China which has been exporting contaminated products, lately]. However, NSF International regulations allow fluoridation chemicals to be contaminated.

Your editorial quotes Jon Roth, executive director of the California Dental Assn. Foundation, who is not a health professional but who essentially does public relations for the Foundation.

We’d like to see just some of his “overwhelming evidence” that he says proves fluoridation is safe and effective.

CAROL S. KOPF

Levittown, New York

Buffa’s fluoride comments ring a bell

Yes, I am old enough to remember fluoride in my town’s water.

My father was a dentist and thought it was the best idea ever. Peter Buffa’s comments (“Frowning over the nostalgic fluoride hysteria,” Nov. 4) are so terrific and rational that I can understand why he is no longer mayor of Costa Mesa.

RHODA FRIEDMAN

Newport Beach

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