I OPPOSE the new Government legislation under which Strategic Health Authorities will, after public consultation, be able to ask water companies to fluoridate our water supply.

Because health authorities carry out Government policy, and taxpayer's money is used to fund the British Fluoridation Society in its promotion of fluoridation, any public consultation is unlikely to be other than biased.

In passing this legislation, the Government has ignored the York Review's recommendations for further research and the World Health Organisation's warning that a population's total exposure to fluoride should be established before further fluoridation schemes are implemented.

How much fluoride are we ingesting or absorbing from dental preparations, foodstuffs, tea and pollution?

Any possible reduction in children's dental decay (estimated at 14.6 per cent) is surely outweighed by the fact that 48 per cent of the population would suffer some degree of dental fluorosis, 12.5 per cent sufficiently serious to be of concern. This is the first, outward, sign of fluoride poisoning.

What would the fluoride do to the rest of our bodies?

Mrs J Apperly,

Rosegarth,

Back Lane,

North Duffield, Selby.

Updated: 10:37 Thursday, March 25, 2004