Tap Water/Fluoride

Drinking water should be free from disease germs and hazardous contaminants. In order to provide this, water is filtered, is cleaned, and has chemicals added to it. In the case of tap water, the water is first purified and then rendered fit for consumption by introducing minute quantities of chlorine and passing ammonia through it. This destroys harmful bacteria that may have slipped through the filters, such as the organisms of typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, cholera, dysentery, jaundice, and parasitical worms that breed in water. All these chemicals are filtered out before tap water reaches millions of homes, and experts are paid to taste it and ensure that it is palatable.

Good drinking water should contain minerals necessary for our bodies. Fluoride, for example, is one such mineral, which in small proportions is excellent, especially for the teeth. The same mineral in excess is said to cause harm to the body. However, fluoride is not added to water to destroy bacteria, and not all of it is eliminated by filtering or by other means. When fluoride is added to tap water, it is meant to remain in the water and enter the bloodstream of those who drink it. Even when less than 1 part per million (ppm) is ingested, the cumulative effect tends to be harmful over a period of time.

Fluoride is assumed to be safe because some water supplies contain fluoride ions derived from the calcium fluoride that is naturally present in it. People consuming this water for years have apparently shown no adverse health effects. Water experts and water supply authorities often argue that when sodium fluoride is added artificially, the fluoride ions remain precisely the same as those that appear naturally. When fluorine occurs in water naturally, it is nearly always found in hard water, so that for every part of fluorine present, there are between 200 and 300 parts of calcium, which limit, control, and partly nullify the highly active fluoride. However, when fluoride is added to soft water, there may be a presence of only 10 parts of calcium to one of fluoride, a proportion insufficient to nullify the poisonous effects of the fluoride ions over long periods.

Where water contains fluorine naturally, the fluorine is present in the form of calcium fluoride. Calcium fluoride is a very inert and insoluble substance, and because of this, there is considerable difficulty in adding it to a drinking water supply. In case of tap water or drinking water supplies, it is impracticable to add calcium fluoride to water because it is virtually insoluble; and so, water is dosed with sodium fluoride. Sodium fluoride is both soluble and active, and it is this that is added to tap water supplies. Water experts assert [Page 464]that sodium fluoride in water has the ability to ionize and the resultant reaction would be the same as if calcium fluoride were present, and theoretically, this is so. But in practice, it is not so and laboratory experiments have shown that the ionization of calcium fluoride and that of sodium fluoride in the presence of other calcium salts differ widely. Those who wish sodium chloride to be added to water maintain that when added in the proportion of 1 ppm, the chemical is completely ionized and, therefore, loses its normal biological properties and reacts on living cells precisely as inertly as calcium fluoride.

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