FLUORIDATION CONTROVERSY - ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION

Fluoridation, the addition of fluoride compounds to the public water supply in order to reduce tooth decay, is a health innovation that appears to have considerable benefits and only modest costs. It is also, however, an innovation that has produced a protracted public controversy which has not been fully understood. Here, Sapolsky examines proposed explanations of the controversy and offers an alternative more nearly compatible with the evidence available. © 1969 by Columbia University Press.