Letter: The fight against fluoridation

LABOUR'S SLOWDOWN on full open competition in the drinking-water supply industry may be for reasons other than those you suggest ("Safety fears scupper water sell-off", 14 November).

Currently, very few suppliers fluoridate their water. Not for moral reasons, methinks, but because most are afraid of lawsuits brought against them for forced medication and poisoning of the water supply. With full competition, they may be even less likely to fluoridate.

Tony Blair, on the other hand, is well known for his wish to have our drinking water fluoridated against our will. Perhaps this is not surprising, since we now know that both Hitler and Stalin experimented with fluoride at 1ppm in the water because of its known effect of making the population more "compliant". Fluoride is a powerful neurotoxin; it causes bloating, cramps and brittle bone disease, even at 1ppm.

As regards our teeth: the small benefit, which is anyway limited to a young age group, can be had by the use of fluoridated toothpaste or fluoride tablets, without forcibly poisoning the population with an unwanted by-product of the aluminium smelting industry.

RICHARD COLLINS

Bridgwater, Somerset