By Tribune-Review

Published: Friday, January 25, 2013, 9:08 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Regarding the news story “Westmoreland customers getting fluoride out of their water” (Jan. 22 and TribLIVE.com): I'll start with the narrow thinking of Dr. Bernie Dishler, Pennsylvania Dental Association president, whose “junk science” comment misses the point of the ridiculousness of fluoridating municipal water. My opposition has to do not with the efficacy of preventing dental caries — that's probably settled science — but with other issues that render water fluoridation absurd.

Dr. Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Prize winner in physiology in 2000, opposes fluoridation for several reasons. Most importantly, if fluoride is a medication, dosage should be tailored to the individual.

Fluoridation of water systems is tailored to concentration (0.07 milligrams per liter). Any attempt to force individuals to ingest a medication, especially if it is not dose-specific, abridges our rights.

Physicians prescribe medications using criteria such as body weight, age, metabolic abnormalities, allergies, etc. And there should be an effort to help determine if, in fact, you will achieve the desired result. Ask competent physicians if they would prescribe a medication to a random population of different individuals unknown to them. I believe the answer is obvious.

A miniscule percentage of municipal water is ingested by the target population. That alone makes fluoridation wasteful, compounded by the fact that food processors must remove fluoride before using such water.

Fluoride supplements, or dose-specific medication, should be provided by professional practitioners, not by having municipal water employees provide fluoride-treated water for ingestion.

Joseph G. Cremonese

Hempfield

1. Faulty mindset
2. Belongs in prison
3. Fox sarcasm
4. Multiple Bibles: It’s OK
5. Public will win
6. Unions can, churches can’t?
7. Sacrament, not style
8. ObamaCare in action
9. Unfair to Corbett
10. Bad situation made worse
11. Successful? Tax it!

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