I read the letter to the editor, “Voter Choice on Fluoride” and I was moved to write a letter answering Scott Ellis.

He mentions a federal lawsuit filed to stop fluoride being added to any U.S. municipal water supply without mentioning the countless lawsuits filed previously which have all lost in a court of last resort. He also failed to mention that the Fluoride Action Network, to which he referred readers, presented a petition to the EPA in 2016 “to ban the addition of fluoride to any U.S. municipal water supply” and this petition was denied based on insufficient evidence that the optimal level of community water fluoridation is unsafe or ineffective.

Fluoride is a mineral, not a medication. It is the 13th most common element in the earth’s crust. It exists naturally in the ocean at 1.0 parts per million. The MCL for fluoride in the water is 4.0 parts per million. The MCL is the level below which no adverse health effects occur, over 400 per cent more than the optimal level to prevent decay. The issue here is not individual rights, it is the overriding issue of public health and it is the board of health’s responsibility, by law, to make the best decision for all residents of the community, to fluoridate the community water supply. It is also the community’s right to petition a vote on the issue, after the board of health makes the decision to add fluoride to the water.

Decay is one of the most common childhood diseases and also one of the most popular reasons a young student sees the school nurse. Children with poor oral health are four times more likely to do poorly in school. Most people reading this in the newspaper don’t really understand poor. Poor is not being able to afford a newspaper. Twenty per cent of children in Massachusetts are food insecure, that means one in five go to bed hungry at night. You can check this statistic, it’s real. So if someone says those who want fluoride can afford it, this is a fallacy. This is not about fluoride. There are no current, credible, peer reviewed studies that show that fluoride is anything but safe, effective, and cost efficient. Put simply, this is an issue of social justice and social equality. Do you want to help the underserved in your community avoid the pain and stigma of poor oral health?

Dr. John P. Fisher

Marblehead

The writer is a member of the Better Oral Health for Massachusetts Coalition.