Fluoride levels in my local water

[gardenofdreams]

Hey guys,

I live in Essex, UK and i recently emailed my local water company to know the levels of fluoride in the water. I thought i'd share the response i got:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your water quality query dated 20/09/08 regarding the
fluoridation of the water supply.

At the current time we do not fluoridate any of the water that we supply
and there are no plans in place to do so in the near future. The decision
to fluoridate water supplies is not a decision made by individual water
companies but by the Strategic Health Authority.

There are however background levels of fluoride found in drinking water.
Your property is situated in our Southend West water quality zone, the
level of fluoride in the drinking water provided to this area ranges
between 0.17 and 0.27 mg/l F. These fluoride concentrations are background
levels and fully comply with the regulations that stipulate that the
drinking water limit for fluoride to be less than 1.5mg/l F.

In your query you also mentioned that you believed that the UK is the only
country that supplies fluoridated water, this is in fact not true. There
are around 300 million people in the world that are supplied with
fluoridated water from approximately 39 countries. In the UK only 10% of
the population receive fluoridated water compared to 73% in the Republic of
Ireland, 60% of the USA and 61% of Australia.

I hope that you have found this information useful but should you have any
further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.


Yours sincerely,



Is this just a email they send to everyone just to shut them up?

And background levels of fluoride is still fluoride isn't it? lol

I also thought that the UK was mainly the only country to add fluoride in the water?

[psych641]

I think areas of the US fluoridate too IIRC, from campaign websites ive seen.

Fluoride is probably in all/most untreated water, to a degree - its just a fact of life, fluorine is a very common element.

IMO a small amount of natural calcium fluoride isnt a big deal, people have probably been drinking it forever. The problem were facing now in the industrialised world is overall exposure from many different sources - food, fertilizers & pesticides, cookware, medicines, pollution , paint fumes, clothing, carpet & soft furnishings, a whole variety of consumer products.

[truthseeker1980]

Is this just a email they send to everyone just to shut them up?

Yes, as I got the exact same reply, from my water board, the governement must have given all the water boards the same email to send. :mad:

[alzee]

Neither of you expected a personal reply, surely?

Every business has Templates for the vast majority of their business correspondance, otherwise theyd be writing new bloody letters all day, which aint exactly a good use of an empoyees time.

[lozz]

Hey guys,

I live in Essex, UK and i recently emailed my local water company to know the levels of fluoride in the water. I thought i'd share the response i got:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your water quality query dated 20/09/08 regarding the
fluoridation of the water supply.

At the current time we do not fluoridate any of the water that we supply
and there are no plans in place to do so in the near future. The decision
to fluoridate water supplies is not a decision made by individual water
companies but by the Strategic Health Authority.

There are however background levels of fluoride found in drinking water.
Your property is situated in our Southend West water quality zone, the
level of fluoride in the drinking water provided to this area ranges
between 0.17 and 0.27 mg/l F. These fluoride concentrations are background
levels and fully comply with the regulations that stipulate that the
drinking water limit for fluoride to be less than 1.5mg/l F.

In your query you also mentioned that you believed that the UK is the only
country that supplies fluoridated water, this is in fact not true. There
are around 300 million people in the world that are supplied with
fluoridated water from approximately 39 countries. In the UK only 10% of
the population receive fluoridated water compared to 73% in the Republic of
Ireland, 60% of the USA and 61% of Australia.

I hope that you have found this information useful but should you have any
further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.


Yours sincerely,


Strategic health authorities!? why strategic?

Just googled it and It's part of the NHS

Taken from the NHS website:-

Strategic health authorities

Created by the government in 2002 to manage the local NHS on behalf of the secretary of state, there were originally 28 strategic health authorities (SHAs). On July 1 2006, this number was reduced to 10. Fewer, more strategic organisations will deliver stronger commissioning functions, leading to improved services for patients and better value for money for the taxpayer. A map of the old and new SHAs is available from the Department of Health.

Strategic health authorities are responsible for:

* developing plans for improving health services in their local area,
* making sure local health services are of a high quality and are performing well,
* increasing the capacity of local health services - so they can provide more services, and
* making sure national priorities - for example, programmes for improving cancer services - are integrated into local health service plans.

Strategic health authorities manage the NHS locally and are a key link between the Department of Health and the NHS.

[chris_com283]

I somehow has the impression that natural fluoride in Essex was quite high. I don't know what 0.27 mg/I F means, but I read somewhere it was something like 1mg per litre, which is quite high.

I also thought that the UK was mainly the only country to add fluoride in the water?
I haven't done much research, but I'm sure much of America is fluoridated with at least the recommended dose of 1:00 ppm. Much of Alabama has at least 1mg per litre.

Do you know where I can get a reguarly updated map of the fluoride levels in the UK?

[chris_com283]

I think I've found it.

http://www.sepho.org.uk/viewResource.aspx?id=8129

[chris_com283]

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/inlwater/iwfluoride.htm

This may also be of some use.

I got it from here.

http://www.bfsweb.org/facts/wf_uknworld/f_wf_uknworld.htm

Fluoride sure does seem to make people look dumb, I mean happy.

[jojo]

i wonder which "10%" of the uk has flourinated water then??

[chris_com283]

Well I've found the map that shows levels of fluoride in England. I believe Ireland is also highly fluoridated. Luckily the map shows Bristol to be free. It seems that even low or no doses of fluoride can cause problems. Apparently it's even in tea.

http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/hfacts.html

The EPA have inforced that water shouldn't be above 4mg/L, but has set a standard of 2mg/L for teeth protection. They also state that children under 9 should not drink water that has fluoride of over 4mg/L. Though did they also take into account of the other sources of fluoride? Are they saying that people shouldn't be consuming more than 4mg/L a day or that water shouldn't be higher than that?

[chris_com283]

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11571#description

This may be of interest.