Letters                                                                        

Editor: I can't believe, after more than 25 years of healthy and harmless public water fluoridation in Illinois, that you would even print Myrtle Sapora's letter to the editor [August-September, 1992]. Who is Myrtle Sapora to entitle her to space in your Letters column on an issue about which she has no knowledge whatsoever!

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world are drinking fluoridated water. More epidemiologic research has been done on the effects of water fluoridation on human beings than on any other major public health measure in history.

Kooks, food fadists, demagogues and radical fanatics had, for years, been our nemeses in attempting to institute water fluoridation programs in states here in the United States and in countries everywhere. In many places they succeeded in frightening innocent people into objecting strongly enough to block fluoridation programs.

From what crack in the woodwork Ms. Sapora has emerged I don't know; but please don't subject your readers to a debate that was, for all intent and purpose, resolved years ago.

No one has been able to demonstrate that fluoride, in concentrations anywhere near that considered ideal for the prevention of tooth decay, has produced any undesirable side effects at all. That is fact, as supported by every reputable scientific organization, inside and outside of government, in the United States and in virtually every civilized country in the world. Who is Myrtle Sapora?

Bruce L. Douglas, D.D.S, M.P.H.
Professor of Public Health
University of Illinois

Readers: Your comments on articles and columns are welcome. Please keep letters brief (250 words); we reserve the right to excerpt them so that as many as space allows can be published. Send your letters to:

Caroline Gherardini, Editor
Illinois Issues
Sangamon State University
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9243

February 1993/Illinois Issues/11