Last updated 11:12, Friday, 10 October 2008

I HAVE read your debate on fluoride with interest.

Surely the greatest argument against adding fluoride to water is choice. 

The Government allows me to take risks with smoking, drinking, travelling at 70mph on a motorway, and crossing streets when not safe to do so – and happily patches me up if all goes wrong.

Yet, it feels I can’t be trusted to clean my own teeth! How ridiculous.

The effectiveness of this technique is inconclusive; and I fear it is just an attempt to provide dental care on the cheap.

The ‘choice agenda’ is the new government buzzword, yet we can’t choose not to drink fluoridated water.

And, for some people, such as kidney disease sufferers, this lack of choice could seriously affect their health.

Why not hand it out in sachets so that everyone can add it to their water? Then we’ll see how popular this measure is.

We live in an area of immense beauty and purity, where I know that the water I drink comes from just a few miles from my house.

And the health authority pollutes it with this rubbish, before it reaches my mouth.

This must be stopped.

HAYDON WILLIAMS
Strawberry How
Cockermouth