CONTROVERSY has been raging in the British Medical Journal on
the subject of compulsory fluoridation of water supplies; and from the welter of technicalities emerges the—to me— disconcerting revelation that I can be subjected to a medical experiment without my knowledge or consent. The aim of fluoridation is to protect children's teeth from decay; but it is still uncertain whether it does not also in the long run damage the health of adults. The pros and cons of fluoridation, how- ever, are immaterial: my view is the same as that of the French dental profession who, according to a BMJ corre- spondent, have rejected it as contrary to human -rights. The dentists, it may be argued, are not disinterested : I am. If I decide to drink water instead of wine or beer or spirits during Lent, it is not for the benefit Of medical statisticians—par- ticularly as their statistics, if the gloomy fears of the anti- fluoridationists are justified, will appear too late to be of any interest to me.
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