Her argument carries some teeth

Bob Singer of Calabasas deserves the public's gratitude for ensuring that the board of directors of the Las Virgenes Water District was duly informed of the scientific studies demonstrating artificial water fluoridation as an ineffective treatment for cavities.

Why won't the fluoridation promoters cease their relentless drive to fluoridate the nation's municipal water systems?

Ingesting too much fluoride can result in dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis. Dental fluorosis is seen in children who've been exposed to too much fluoride while their teeth were developing. Forty percent of all children now have dental fluorosis.

Skeletal fluorosis, according to the National Research Council's 2006 report, "Fluoride in Drinking Water," has symptoms such as chronic joint pain, joint stiffness, decreased mobility, calcification of ligaments, and weak, fracture-prone bones.

It's curious that the medical community doesn't consider the connection between the aggregate consumption of fluoride with the high incidence of arthritis and osteoporosis suffered by millions.

We know that only 50 percent of the fluoride we ingest is excreted; the other half accumulates in our teeth, bones and organs. So why aren't fluoride's long-term health effects acknowledged and closely examined?

Across the United States, 184 million people now drink water mixed with hydrofluorosilicic acid—a toxic industrial waste product—because certain interests want us to believe it fights cavities.

Our local water companies need to demonstrate their duty to care for their customers and demand that the Southern California Metropolitan Water District reverse its voluntarily decision to put this protected pollutant into our water. Nicole Johnson Oak Park