Ten Years for Teeth

Most people have heard that fluorine probably has something to do with keeping teeth healthy. They have read about the happy, cavity-free citizens of Deaf Smith County, Tex., where fluorine exists in judicious quantities in soil and water (TIME, Nov. 10, 1941). They have seen movies of Ripley, Ont., which has so much natural fluorine that the dentists' chief occupation is holding citizens' mouths open to display their perfect teeth. These demonstrations make laymen wonder why experimental use of fluorine has been limited to a few small-scale ventures.

Last week came the news that fluorine is to be tried out with whole towns as guinea pigs. Under the auspices of the New York State and Ontario Health Departments, Newburgh, N.Y. (pop. 32,000) and Brantford, Ont. (pop. 32,000) will soon have fluorine added to their water supplies at the rate of one part of fluorine to a million of water. The experiment will run ten years. Though adding fluorine to water is cheap (about $1,200 a year), these are the first towns to try it.

Checking of results will be done on school children. To provide a control group for Newburgh, the town fathers of Kingston, 32 miles to the north, have promised to forgo fluorine for the ten years. Newburgh and Brantford ought in the end to rate somewhere between Galesburg, Ill. (1.5 parts natural fluorine to a million of water) where school children average two and a half cavities each, and Michigan City, Ind. (0.5 to a million) where children have an average of ten cavities apiece.

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