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The Fluoridation Debate

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The Politics of Water in Post-War Britain

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Abstract

The idea of adding tiny amounts of fluoride to the water supply, so as to safeguard especially children’s teeth against decay, originated in an early 1950s Ministry of Health visit to just such experiments in the United States. Modern, ‘scientific’ and easy to deliver, the technique seemed foolproof. But opponents from both the political Left and Right, from wholefood advocates to small-state libertarians, were eventually able to frustrate fluoridation initiatives across most of Britain. In this they drew on deep scepticism about ‘the expert’, and the threat of governments’ ever-expanding powers to individual liberty: this chapter shows how fluoridation’s opponents were able to take advantage of the complex administrative arrangements for water supply to frustrate and then to defeat the fluoridation effort.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A. Rugg-Gunn, ‘Preventing the Preventable: The Enigma of Dental Caries’, British Dental Journal 191, 9 (2001), fig. 3, p. 485.

  2. 2.

    See e.g. C. Carstairs and R. Elder, ‘Expertise, Health and Popular Opinion: Debating Water Fluoridation, 1945–80’, Canadian Historical Review 89, 3 (2008), pp. 345–71; D. McNeil, The Fight for Fluoridation (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1957); D. McNeil, ‘America’s Longest War: The Fight over Fluoridation’, The Wilson Quarterly 9, 3 (1985), pp. 140–153, and G.A. Reilly, ‘“This Poisoning of our Drinking Water”: The American Fluoridation Controversy in Historical Context, 1950–1990’, George Washington University PhD Thesis, 2001.

  3. 3.

    P. Castle, The Politics of Fluoridation: The Campaign for Fluoridation in the West Midlands (New Barnet: John Libbey, 1987); D.J. Borrett, Something in the Water: The Anti-Fluoride Campaign in Andover, 1955–58 (Andover: Andover History and Archaeology Society, 2002).

  4. 4.

    A.C. Whipple, ‘“Into Every Home, Into Every Body”: Organicism and Anti-Statism in the British Anti-Fluoridation Movement, 1952–1960’, Twentieth Century British History 21, 3 (2010), esp. pp. 348–9.

  5. 5.

    NAUK MH 58/548, Charles to Scheele, United States Public Health Service, 29 October 1951.

  6. 6.

    Ministry of Health, The Fluoridation of Domestic Water Supplies in North America: Report of the United Kingdom Mission (London: HMSO, 1953), pp. 4, 20–1.

  7. 7.

    NAUK MH 58/532, Levits to Poole, 5 July 1960.

  8. 8.

    NAUK MH 58/546, Fluoridation of Water Supplies, Steering Committee, minutes, 4 December 1957.

  9. 9.

    B. Martin, Scientific Knowledge in Controversy: The Social Dynamics of the Fluoridation Debate (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), pp. 3–4, on the origins of the US programme.

  10. 10.

    NAUK RG 40/82, Paterson to Moss, 3 May 1954, Conlett to Bransby, 1 December 1954; NAS HH 101/3916, Smillie to Watson, 9 June 1956.

  11. 11.

    Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham (hereafter Wilts) G25/132/21, Lishman, Wilton Medical Officer of Health, report to public health and general purposes committee, n.d. but filed in April 1955.

  12. 12.

    NAUK HLG 50/2858, Ministry of Health meeting with MHLG, minutes, 20 March 1953; ‘Pre-Fluoridation Dental Examinations: Account of Sampling Procedure, Ayr and Kilmarnock’, Health Bulletin of the Chief Medical Office of the Department of Health for Scotland 16, 1 (1958), pp. 16–19.

  13. 13.

    NAUK MH 58/532, Office memorandum for Workman, 5 May 1955.

  14. 14.

    ‘Some Oppose Norwich Water Fluoridation Proposal’, Eastern Daily Press, 1 May 1954; ‘Fluoride in Diss Water’, Eastern Daily Press, 3 May 1954; ‘Applause Greets Norwich “No Fluoride” Decision’, Eastern Daily Press, 26 May 1954.

  15. 15.

    Winifred M. Sykes, ‘Letters to the Editor: Fluoride in Water’, Eastern Daily Press, 25 May 1954.

  16. 16.

    NAUK HLG 50/2858, Key memorandum, ‘Report of a visit to Norwich water department’, 20 August 1953.

  17. 17.

    NAUK MH 58/532, Heath to Poole, 12 June 1959; NAUK HLG 50/2563, Dummer, Medical Officer of Health, Borough of Andover, to Constantine, 13 April 1956.

  18. 18.

    Borrett, Water, pp. 27–28.

  19. 19.

    ‘Fluorides: Bane or Boon?’, Andover Advertiser, 12 October 1956; ‘Fluorides: Protest Meeting’, Andover Advertiser, 2 November 1956.

  20. 20.

    Hants H/CL5/GN353/1, NPWA pamphlet, ‘Fluoridation in Andover, Hampshire’, n.d. but filed in 1963.

  21. 21.

    UWMRC MSS 292B/646.93/4, NPWA pamphlet, ‘Fluoridation in Andover, Hampshire’, 1959; Borrett, Water, pp. 78–9.

  22. 22.

    U. Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage, Eng. trans., 1992), esp. pp. 21–6.

  23. 23.

    R. Boyne, ‘Cosmopolis and Risk: A Conversation with Ulrich Beck’, Theory,Culture and Society 18, 4 (2001), esp. pp. 57–60.

  24. 24.

    V. Higgins and K. Natalier, ‘Governing Environmental Harms in a Risk Society’, in R. White (ed.), Controversies in Environmental Sociology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 81–2.

  25. 25.

    B. Wynne, ‘May the Sheep Safely Graze? A Reflexive View of the Expert-Lay Knowledge Divide’, in S. Lash, B. Szerszynski and B. Wynne (eds.), Risk, Environment and Modernity: Towards a New Ecology (London: Sage, 1996), esp. pp. 44–5.

  26. 26.

    A. Elliott, ‘Beck’s Sociology of Risk: A Critical Assessment’, Sociology 36, 2 (2002), esp. pp. 301–4; see Hannigan, Environmental Sociology, esp. pp. 184–5.

  27. 27.

    The point is made in the Canadian context by Carstairs and Elder, ‘Fluoridation’, p. 348.

  28. 28.

    Whipple, ‘Anti-Fluoridation’, p. 334.

  29. 29.

    J. Rorty, ‘The Case Against Fluoridation’, The New Leader, 2 January 1956.

  30. 30.

    ‘Is Fluoridation Necessary?’, The Times, 22 March 1965; ‘Letters: Fluoride in Water’, Glasgow Herald, 2 December 1969.

  31. 31.

    G. Field, ‘Flushing Poisons From the Body Politic: The Fluoride Controversy and American Political Culture, 1955–1965’, in J. Heideking, J. Helbig and A. Ortlepp (eds.), The Sixties Revisited (Heidelbeg: Winter, 2001), pp. 471–482-3.

  32. 32.

    C. Carstairs, ‘Cities without Cavities: Democracy, Risk and Public Health’, Journal of Canadian Studies 44, 2 (2010), pp. 154, 160.

  33. 33.

    NAUK MH 148/177, MoH memorandum, ‘Comments on documents circulated by the London anti-fluoridation campaign’, June 1967.

  34. 34.

    See e.g. ‘Fluoridation: Increasing Evidence of Harm’ and ‘Speaking out about Fluoridation’, Health for All (March 1966), pp. 703–7.

  35. 35.

    For Whipple’s comments on Grant, see Whipple, ‘Anti-Fluoridation’, p. 336.

  36. 36.

    CCAC, Hankey Papers 22/1, Grant to Hankey, 19 October 1956, and Grant to Hankey, 15 May 1958. See D. Grant, ‘Fluoridation…Is This Dictatorship?’, The Guild Gardener (March/ April 1956), esp. p. 10, and ‘Obituaries: Doris Grant’, The Daily Telegraph, 29 March 2003.

  37. 37.

    Wellcome SA/PAT/D/21, e.g. A.E. Joll to Patients’ Association, 30 December 1966; SA/PAT/D/21, Robinson to Russell, 1 October 1976.

  38. 38.

    LSE Fabian Society E120/10, NPWA pamphlets, ‘Authoritative criticisms of fluoridation’, ‘The primary question of principle’, n.d. but filed in 1962–63; E. Lubbock, ‘The Politics of Fluoridation’, British Dental Journal 121 (1966), pp. 94–96; LSE Liberal Party files 16/89, Party memorandum, ‘Fluoridation’, June 1964.

  39. 39.

    See e.g. NAUK PREM 13/2810, Barloch to Wilson, 12 March 1966.

  40. 40.

    ‘Fluoridation of Water Supplies’, The Times, 12 July 1965.

  41. 41.

    Wilts G25/132/21, Lishman, Wilton Medical Officer of Health, memorandum, ‘“Press release”…of the “National Pure Water Association”, 1963, comments’, 24 June 1963.

  42. 42.

    National Osteopathic Archives, Borough High Street, London, Brian Youngs papers (hereafter NOA/Youngs/ NPWA) box 1/ 2103, Urry news letter to members, November 1969.

  43. 43.

    CCAC, Powell Papers 3/2/1/15, National Pure Water Association petition, September 1966.

  44. 44.

    On Rapaport’s influence in the US too, see F.J. Margolis and S.N. Cohen, ‘Successful and Unsuccessful Experiences in Combating the Antifluoridationists’, Pediatrics 76, 113 (1985), p. 115.

  45. 45.

    Hants H/CL5/FN353/4, W.A. Moody to Clerk of Hampshire County Council, 18 November 1967.

  46. 46.

    Wilts 2164/40, Lionel Rapaport, ‘Mongolism and fluoride water’, n.d. but filed in 1964; Wilts G25/132/21, Lishman, Wilton Medical Officer of Health, memorandum, ‘Notes on document concerning mongolism and fluoride water’, June 1964. The Chief Medical Officers’ replies can be found in e.g. NAS HH 61/1314, Chief Medical Officer of Scotland circular to doctors, 7 July 1964.

  47. 47.

    Castle, Politics, pp. 2–3.

  48. 48.

    Hants H/CL5/GN353/3, Joll to Editor, Hampshire Chronicle, 18 April 1967.

  49. 49.

    Martin, Controversy, pp. 7–8, 67–8.

  50. 50.

    E.F. Dean, ‘Letters to the Editor: Fluoride in Water’, Eastern Daily Press, 4 June 1954.

  51. 51.

    C.P. Toumey, Conjuring Science: Scientific Symbols and Cultural Meanings in American Life (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press), p. 9, 72–6.

  52. 52.

    S. Mnookin, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011), p. 59.

  53. 53.

    LPA, Local Government Files, Water Supply, Joll to Ward, 11 November 1963. See e.g. ‘Is Fluoridation Necessary?’, Letters, The Observer, February 13 1966; ‘Fluoride Road to Totalitarianism: Human “Battery Hens”’, Daily Telegraph, Letters, 7 June 1966.

  54. 54.

    e.g. LSE Douglas of Barloch files, general correspondence, Douglas to Wilson, 7 April 1964, Wilson to Douglas, 17 March 1964.

  55. 55.

    LSE Douglas of Barloch files, general correspondence, Douglas to Woolton, 7 January 1943.

  56. 56.

    Wellcome SA/PAT/D/21, London NPWA press release, ‘Let the public judge’, n.d. (1966?).

  57. 57.

    Gloucester Archives, Gloucester (hereafter Gloucs) GBR/L/6/25/B6778, ‘An Intelligence Report: The Fluoridation Mystery’, n.d. but filed in 1965.

  58. 58.

    Gloucs GBR/L/6/25/B6778, E.A. Sitwell to Gloucester Town Clerk, 1 March 1963; the same correspondent had similar allegations at Stroud: see Sitwell, ‘Fluoridation’, The Citizen (Stroud), 25 February 1963.

  59. 59.

    P. Wright, A Journey Through Ruins: The Last Days of London (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009 edn.), p. 177.

  60. 60.

    LSE Douglas of Barloch files, general correspondence, Douglas to Berryman, 10 October 1956, Douglas to Harrods Ltd., 13 October 1956

  61. 61.

    Wellcome SA/PAT/D/21/1, Lord Douglas of Barloch, ‘Report on Fluoridation of the Royal College of Physicians (England): An Appraisal’, National Pure Water Association, November 1976.

  62. 62.

    K. Block, ‘Deep Structure and Controversy: Re-Reading the Fluoridation Debate’, Health Sociology Review 18, 3 (2009), pp. 249–50.

  63. 63.

    NAUK MH 148/177, MoH press release, ‘“Scaremongering” on fluoridation: Mr Powell responds to opponents’, 17 May 1963.

  64. 64.

    NOA/Youngs/NPWA/1/2103, Blunt memorandum, ‘To professional people against fluoridation’, n.d. but filed in 1969.

  65. 65.

    NAUK MH 55/2718, Darlington Town Clerk to Central Council for Health Education, 4 August 1955, ‘Address to the People of Andover: Why Fluoridation is Wrong’, May 1956, Dummer, MOH, Andover, to Roffey, MoH, 11 May 1956.

  66. 66.

    Hants 10/A12/3, ‘Vicar Condemns Council’s Fluorides Decision’, Andover Advertiser, n.d. but 1956; ‘“Offence to Millions”: Effect on Prestige of the Crown’, news cutting, n.d. but 1953; ‘Vicar on Modern Marriage’, Andover Advertiser, n.d. but 1955–56; ‘Mrs Machin to be Town’s Next Mayor’, Andover Advertiser, 27 January 1961.

  67. 67.

    NAUK MH 55/2274, Berry to Winner, 11 February 1957.

  68. 68.

    See e.g. W.A. Gamson and P.H. Irons, ‘Community Characteristics and Fluoridation Outcome’, Journal of Social Issues 17, 4 (1961), esp. pp. 69–72; H. Hahn, ‘Ethos and Social Class: Referenda in Canadian Cities’, Polity 2, 3 (1970), tables I-II, pp. 301–2.

  69. 69.

    Castle, Politics, p. 21.

  70. 70.

    NOA/Youngs/NPWA/1/2013, NPWA members’ notes circular, August 1963.

  71. 71.

    J. Hinton, ‘Militant Housewives: The British Housewives’ League and the Attlee Government’, History Workshop Journal 38 (1994), pp. 129–56; G. O’Hara, ‘Parties, People and Parliament: Britain’s “Ombudsman” and the Politics of the 1960s’, Journal of British Studies 50, 3 (2011), p. 700.

  72. 72.

    B. Cartland, ‘Can We Women of Britain ALLOW This?’, The Evening News, 27 May 1966.

  73. 73.

    NAUK MH 55/2718, Central Council for Health Education meeting with Ministry of Education, minutes, 17 March, 20 April 1956.

  74. 74.

    Whipple, ‘Anti-Fluoridation’, pp. 332, 334–5.

  75. 75.

    NAUK MH 58/546, Senior to Ross, 25 July 1958.

  76. 76.

    NAS HH 101/3916, McCabe to Penman, September 1962.

  77. 77.

    NAS HH 101/4029, MacLehose memorandum, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, 11 June 1958; NAS HH 58/99, Pattullo to Noble, 22 June 1962.

  78. 78.

    ‘The AGM: Chairman’s Report’, Housewives Today 15, 8 (May 1963), p. 1.

  79. 79.

    J. Wrapson, ‘Artificial Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies in New Zealand: “Magic Bullet”, “Rat Poison”, or Communist Plot?’, Health and History 7, 1 (2005), p. 22; NAUK HLG 50/2858, Roffey to Constantine, ‘Fluoridation’, 30 June 1956.

  80. 80.

    NOA/Youngs/ NPWA/1/2103, NPWA members’ notes circular, May 1965.

  81. 81.

    Oxfordshire Records Office (hereafter Oxon) CC3/4/C10/66, Pleybell, County Medical Officer of Health, memorandum to Council, ‘No. 9: The control of dental ill health by adjusting the fluoride content of water supplies’, n.d. but filed in 1963.

  82. 82.

    Wilts G25/132/21, Lishman, Wilton Medical Officer of Health, memorandum, ‘Fluoridation – a method of controlling tooth decay’, December 1967.

  83. 83.

    D. Taylor, ‘Fluoridation: The Battle of Hastings’, Health Education 15, 1 (1957), p. 34.

  84. 84.

    E. Lubbock, ‘Fluoridation: A Threat to Personal Liberty?’, Rural District Review, February 1966; see ‘Privy Council to Hear New Zealand Fluoride Appeal’, The Guardian, 3 June 1964.

  85. 85.

    Wilts 2164/40, Ministry of Health to local authorities, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, 3 August 1965; NAS HH 58/158, Robinson to Mulley, 9 July 1965.

  86. 86.

    NAS HH 58/164, Bell to Walters, 22 June 1971. The Scottish Law Officers later turned again to this case when Lord Barloch’s counsel, George Dobry QC, issued an unfavourable opinion about their legal powers over this matter: NAS DD 13/2814, Eadie to Maclean, 17 September 1976

  87. 87.

    H.F. Akers, ‘Collaboration, Vision and Reality: Water Fluoridation in New Zealand, 1952–1968’, New Zealand Dental Journal 103, 3 (2008), pp. 128–9.

  88. 88.

    NAS HH 61/1311, O’Brien to Manningham-Buller, 23 January 1957, Manningham-Buller to O’Brien, 7 February 1957, McCabe to Ashworth, 28 June 1962.

  89. 89.

    NAUK HLG 50/2894, British Waterworks Association to member companies, 25 October 1962.

  90. 90.

    Gloucs GBR/L/6/23/B6778, Millis, British Waterworks Association, to water concerns and companies, 26 June 1963.

  91. 91.

    UWMRC MSS 407/1/11, British Water Companies’ Association, speech at AGM, 29 July 1964, and minutes of council meeting, 29 May 1963.

  92. 92.

    Oxon CC3/4/C10/66, Thames Valley Water Board to Burkitt, Clerk of Oxfordshire County Council, 3 December 1963, Buckinghamshire Water Board to Burkitt, 3 December 1963.

  93. 93.

    ‘Fluoride Doctor Dies’, Oxford Times, 24 May 1984.

  94. 94.

    NAS DD 13/2889, National Water Council to Dorrington, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, 24 September 1976.

  95. 95.

    CPA CRD 2/44/24, Conservative Health and Social Security Committee, minutes, 4 November 1958.

  96. 96.

    NAUK MH 58/549, Woodcock to Secretary, 5 November 1958.

  97. 97.

    NAS HH 101/4029, Officials’ briefing note for Home Affairs Committee, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, 3 June 1958.

  98. 98.

    LPA, Local Government Files, Water Supply, M.B. Soar, Louth CLP, to Transport House, 15 May 1964.

  99. 99.

    LPA RD 160, LPRD memorandum to Local Government Sub-Committee, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, July 1961.

  100. 100.

    NAUK HLG 50/2894, Widdup to Corrie, ‘Fluoridation’, 4 October 1962; NAS HH 61/1312, Powell memorandum to Home Affairs Committee, ‘Fluoridation of water’, November 1962.

  101. 101.

    NAS HH 61/1311, Reed to Thomson, 26 January 1962, Dick to the Lord Advocate, 23 November 1962.

  102. 102.

    NAUK CAB 124/1641, Ministry of Health press release, ‘Fluorine in drinking water’, 28 May 1963.

  103. 103.

    Gloucs DA4/889/6, Barclay memorandum, ‘Meeting of Medical Officers of Health, Central Clinic, Bristol, 16 October 1962‘, 19 October 1962.

  104. 104.

    NAUK MH 58/546, Heald to Milne, 28 July 1958.

  105. 105.

    Gloucs DA4/889/6, Robinson to local authorities, Circular 16/65, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, 3 August 1965; NAS HH 101/4029, Office memorandum for Graham, 28 December 1956.

  106. 106.

    PWDRO 2834/106, Plymouth City Council Health and Welfare Services Committee, minutes, 14 June 1962, 14 February 1963, 17 October 1963.

  107. 107.

    E. Jones, Parched City: A History of London’s Public and Private Drinking Water (London: Zero Books, 2013), pp. 149, 154.

  108. 108.

    Oxon CC3/4/C10/66, Plowman, City Clerk, to Burkitt, Clerk of the County Council, 10 April 1963, Burkitt to Markham, 8 May 1964, County Medical Officer memorandum, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, 14 February 1964, Thames Valley Water Board to Burkitt, 25 January 1966; ‘County Council to be Asked to Back Fluoridation Plan’, Oxford Times, 26 July 1963.

  109. 109.

    Hants H/CL5/GN353/2, Portsmouth Water Company to Clerk of Hampshire County Council, 4 November 1965, Wessex Water Company to Clerk of Hampshire County Council, 1 December 1965.

  110. 110.

    Hants H/CL5/GN353/1, Special sub-committee on fluoridation of water memorandum, ‘Meeting, 12 September 1963‘, September 1963.

  111. 111.

    Hants H/CL5/GN353/3, County Council memorandum, ‘Recommendations’, n.d. but filed in 1966, Clerk of the Council to E.J. Penn, 5 April 1966; Hants HICX/12/59, Proceedings of the Health Committee, Hampshire County Council, 27 November 1967.

  112. 112.

    Gloucs GBR/L/6/23, Gloucester City health committee minutes, 5 October 1962, water committee minutes, 16 October 1962; Gloucs GBR/L/6/23/B6778, Gloucester Town Clerk to Ministry of Health, Gloucester Town Clerk to Joll, NPWA, 17 December 1963.

  113. 113.

    NAS HH 58/165, Fraser to Monro, 13 April 1972.

  114. 114.

    NAS HH 58/159, Howitt to Maddock, 23 January 1967.

  115. 115.

    ‘Fluoride: SWAA Committee Give Unanimous “No”’, Falmouth Packet, 19 December 1975; NAS DD 13/2888, Farquhar to Howell, 22 December 1975.

  116. 116.

    NAS DD 13/2814, Ennals to Shore, 10 January 1977.

  117. 117.

    ‘Getting Into Deep Water on Fluoride’, Glasgow Herald, 21 January 1970; ‘Glasgow Votes for Fluoride in Water Supply’, Glasgow Herald, 17 August 1973; J. Lenihan, The Crumbs of Creation: Trace Elements in History, Medicine, Industry, Crime and Folklore (Bristol: Hilger, 1988), p. 68.

  118. 118.

    ‘Fluoride Proposal “Degrading to Humans”’, Glasgow Herald, and ‘Advice on Fluoride Voted Down’, The Scotsman, both 27 July 1976; ‘One Vote Stops Fluoride in Lothian Water’, Glasgow Herald, 2 August 1978.

  119. 119.

    Wright, Journey through Ruins, p. 177.

  120. 120.

    Castle, Politics, p. 3.

  121. 121.

    NAS DD 13/2889, Anderson to MacKenzie, 20 September 1977, Kerr to Agnew, and enclos., 3 November 1977.

  122. 122.

    NRD DD 13/3340, ‘Opinion of Lord Jauncey in causa Mrs Catherine McColl against Strathclyde Regional Council’, 1983; ‘Fluoride Case Breaks a Court Record’, Glasgow Herald, 26 February 1982; ‘204-Day Fluoride Case Breaks Records’, The Scotsman, 26 July 1982; ‘Purely Technical’, Glasgow Herald, 30 June 1983.

  123. 123.

    Martin, Controversy, p. 215; Borrett, Water, p. 92.

  124. 124.

    NAUK MH 55/2274, Oswald memorandum to Committee on Research into Fluoridation, ‘Demonstration studies of the fluoridation of water supplies’, 27 June 1966.

  125. 125.

    Ministry of Health, The Conduct of the Fluoridation Studies in the United Kingdom and the Results Achieved after Five Years (London: HMSO, 1962), pp. 11–12; Ministry of Health, Results Achieved after Eleven Years, figs. 1–2, pp. 10–11; NAUK MH 148/843, DHSS memorandum, ‘The fluoridation of water’, October 1976.

  126. 126.

    Health Education Council, Our Teeth: Summary of the 1969 Report on Eleven Years of Fluoridation (London: Health Education Council, 1969), ii, charts 1–3b, p. 4.

  127. 127.

    Ministry of Health, Fluoridation (London: HMSO, 1965), p. 3.

  128. 128.

    NAS HH 58/164, Rayner to Bell, 27 November 1970.

  129. 129.

    NAUK PREM 15/2162, Joseph meeting with Heath, minutes, 31 December 1970, Whitelaw to Joseph, 25 January 1971; NAUK CAB 152/101, Joseph meeting with officials, minutes, 29 July 1970.

  130. 130.

    G.N. Jenkins, ‘Recent Changes in Dental Caries’, British Medical Journal (Clinical Research) 291, 6505 (1985), pp. 1297–98; Rugg-Gunn, ‘Preventable’, fig. 3, p. 485.

  131. 131.

    NAUK MH 55/2274, MoH memorandum to Committee on Research into Fluoridation, ‘Progress report’, 1966.

  132. 132.

    Wilts G25/132/2, NPWA press release, ‘80 local health authorities on record as having refused to adopt fluoridation’, 1 May 1968.

  133. 133.

    NAS HH 58/165, Scottish Health Services Council memorandum, ‘Fluoridation’, 1974.

  134. 134.

    British Fluoridation Society, One in a Million: The Facts About Water Fluoridation (London: BFS, 3rd edn., 2012), pp. 1–20.

  135. 135.

    British Fluoridation Society, ‘Independent Survey Demonstrates High Level of Support for Water Fluoridation’, available http://www.bfsweb.org/documents/NOP%20briefing%20Sept03.pdf, accessed 2 April 2014.

  136. 136.

    B. Martin, ‘Coherency of Viewpoints Among Fluoridation Partisans’, Metascience 6, 1 (1988), pp. 6, 8, 12

  137. 137.

    Oxon CC3/4/C10/66, Mckenzie-Wintle memorandum, ‘Fluoridation of water supplies’, 10 May 1963.

  138. 138.

    ‘Doubts About Doctors’, Yorkshire Post, 24 September 1962.

  139. 139.

    ‘Fluoridation Means Poisoned Water!’, Health for All (February 1963).

  140. 140.

    ‘The Woking and District Water Company: Fluoridation’, Surrey Herald, 1 March 1963.

  141. 141.

    ‘Executive Pulls Plug on Fluoride in Water’, The Scotsman, 13 November 2004; ‘McConnell Says No to Fluoride Bid’, The Scotsman, 19 November 2004.

  142. 142.

    ‘I Don’t Want to be a Fluoride Guinea Pig’, BBC News Online, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12429248, accessed 3 April 2014.

  143. 143.

    I.-E. Zipporah et al., ‘Water Fluoridation for the Prevention of Dental Caries’, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 6 (2015); P.E. Peterson and M.A. Lennon, ‘Effective Use of Fluorides for Prevention of Dental Caries in the 21st Century: The WHO Approaches’, Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology 32 (2004), p. 320.

  144. 144.

    K.K. Cheng, I. Chalmers and T.A. Sheldon, ‘Adding Fluoride to Water Supplies’, British Medical Journal 335, 7622 (2007), p. 702.

  145. 145.

    ‘Fluoride Branded “Brain Danger” to our Children’, Southern Daily Echo, 28 February 2014; the article in question is P. Grandjean and P.J. Landrigan, ‘Neurobehavioural Effects of Developmental Toxicity’, The Lancet Neurology 13, 3 (March 2014), pp. 330–38.

  146. 146.

    S. Peckham, D. Lowery and S. Spencer, ‘Are Fluoride Levels in Drinking Water Associated with Hypothyroidism Prevalence in England? A Large Observational Study of GP Practice Data and Fluoride Levels in Drinking Water’, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 69, 7 (2016), pp. 619-24; see ‘Fluoride in Drinking Water May Trigger Depression and Weight Gain, Warn Scientists’, Daily Telegraph, 23 February 2015.

  147. 147.

    K. Blakey et al., ‘Is Fluoride a Risk Factor for Bone Cancer? Small Area Analysis of Osteosarcoma and Ewing Sarcoma Diagnosed among 0–49-year-olds in Great Britain, 1980–2005’, International Journal of Epidemiology 43, 1 (2014), pp. 224–34; European Union Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks, Critical Review of Any New Evidence on the Hazard Profile, Health Effects, and Human Exposure to Fluoride and the Fluoridating Agents of Drinking Water (European Union: Brussels, 2010), pp. 16–17; E. Oster, ‘Are the Concerns about Water Fluoridation Legit?’, http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/water-fluoridation-fluoride/, accessed 6 April 2016.

  148. 148.

    K.F. Brown et al., ‘UK Parents’ Decision-Making about Measles–Mumps–Rubella (MMR) Vaccine 10 Years after the MMR-Autism Controversy: A Qualitative Analysis’, Vaccine 30, 10 (2012), esp. pp. 1857–61; D. Anderberg, A. Chevalier and J. Wadsworth, ‘Anatomy of a Health Scare: Education, Income and the MMR Controversy in the UK’, Journal of Health Economics 30, 3 (2011), esp. tables 2, 3, pp. 522–3.

  149. 149.

    ‘The Biggest Myth about Vaccine Deniers: That They’re All a Bunch of Hippie Liberals’, The Washington Post, 26 January 2015; ‘Amid Growing Vaccination Debate, Measles Continues to Spread and is Now in New York State’, The Washington Post, 31 January 2015.

  150. 150.

    A good older piece that stresses the first element, but discusses the others, is H. Sapolsky, ‘The Fluoridation Controversy: An Alternative Explanation’, Public Opinion Quarterly 33, 2 (1969), pp. 240–48.

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  1. Department of History, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Glen O’Hara

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O’Hara, G. (2017). The Fluoridation Debate. In: The Politics of Water in Post-War Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-44640-4_8

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