YES ALL VERY INTERESTING
AND OUR WATER HERE IN ADELAIDE HAPPENS TO BE THE NASTIEST OF ALL , THER WAS EVEN A SONG WRITTEN ABOUT OUR TAP WATER DOWN HERE'CRAP ON THE TAP'
STILL, WITH SO LITTLE WATER ITS IMPORTANT WE USE IT SPARINGLY SO'S THAT WE CAN STILL USE WATER FOR ALL OF THE THINGS WE CHOOSE TO-BE IT SPARINGLY.
iM CURIOUS ABOUT THE FLOURIDATION DEBATE THOUGH, MY SISTER WHO'S PRETTY MUCH AN ENVIRONMENTALIST AND REASONABLY HEALTH INFORMED, BELIEVES THE FLOURIDATION OF WATER IS A GOOD THING, SHE HAS EVEN USED EXAMPLES OF YOUNG CHILDRENS TEETH TO PROVE EXAMPLES. mABYE YOUR TEETH DIDDNT GET ENOUGH FLOURIDE FROM AN EARLY AGE, I BELIEVE THIS IS WHEN THE MOST DAMAGE TO THE TEETH OCCURS.

There is probably a happy medium with fluoridisation of water. I grew up in the country so lived off rainwater. However when I ws young it was trendy to give flouride supplements to promote dental health, so I was given these. I have mild dental fluorosis as a result, and had my first filling when I was 28. My youngest sister wasnt given supplements (had gone out of fashion by then) - she has perfectly white and wonderfully straight teeth, but had had 11 fillings by the age of 11. She continually has dental problems associated with decay. I am not sure who is better off... Perhaps if levels were reduced from what is currently considered acceptable we might have a little more decay, but a reduction in the problems associated with fluoride.

Countrygal,

I was also given fluoride supplementation as a child (no fluorosis, fortunately) and I have had one filling in my 4+ decades of life. None of my children (ages 15 - 20) have any fillings (despite all being sweet-toothed) and I put this down to our encouraging them to drink fluoridated tapwater. Plus, good dental hygiene,of course.

eftfnc,

The fact that you say you "started to develop all imaginary health problems under the sun until I switched to pure spring water" pretty much sums up my thoughts on your experiences. The correlation between fluoridation and the loss of your teeth is also "imaginary", I would think.

To return to the topic, I agree with mariah that wasting water is still far too common, despite excellent progress being made in some cities. Brisbane springs to mind as a city that has made quite remarkable reductions in water usage.

Certainly, those of us who live in the bush find it hard to imagine how profligate some (mostly urban) people have been until very recently with respect to water.

Off-topic, but I've always been intrigued by the impassioned, often irrational opposition by many country people to the fluoridation of drinking water. I first encountered it from a League of Rights type I worked for on a farm in the early 1970s.

It's quite striking to note the number of people in our area who have obviously missing teeth. I suppose it's a combination of no dentists, no fluoride and poor diets, but I've always wondered why people are so anti-fluoride in rural areas, compared with city dwellers - among whom I haven't noticed an epidemic of cretinism.

CJ Morgan
not sure about the absence of cretinism in our cities, but is this in comparison to cretinism in the country? anyway i thought it was IODINE deficiency that caused cretinism? correct mr if im wrong.
back to water morgan you are spot on regarding city folk having no idea about the preciousness of it_except its starting to rise in cost ,wich is proberly the only way to manage city cretins. I lived 'bush' traveling anfd such around our country, one cant help but notice how DRY it really is , and how things have drastically changed since WHITE man arrived. I particularily feel for all the well meaning 1st settlers who had a go at the unattainable out in the sticks, passing all those humble homes with scant remains of once loved gardens is a reality bump regarding our arid land.
Well i really wanted to support your point regarding CITY folks use of water with two points.
1: International students who run water freely in share house arrangements as they get about their watery needs, they have no inkling of how we do it here.(i spent 10 months sharing as such 9n sydney with 9 others)
and
.. when my niece comes from Byron Bay to stay, she is shocked by the water waste in our city.The Byron is a very alternative minded region, and many communities do NOT have mains water.

eftfnc

Your attribution of your tooth loss goes against the evidence, which suggests a substantial reduction in tooth decay in populations with water fluoridation. I believe that people moving from fluoridated to unfluoridated areas also suffer spikes in dental decay.

But I dont blame you for condemning fluoride on a gut feeling. It is a powerful motivation, but something to be wary of in scientific testing. Hence things like double blind clinical trials and a reliance on objective measurements.

I wish gut feelings were more accurate, then people in unfluoridated areas would realise that the lack of this element in the water was responsible for over a third of their dental decay.

I wasn't serious when I suggested that you determine Queensland's water policy, but I suspect that similar methods of reasoning are used.

Good health!