Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #119761

Howard F. Pollick, BDS, MPH, Preventive & Restorative Dental Sciences, University of California San Francisco, School of Dentistry, 707 Parnassus Ave., Box 0758, San Francisco, CA 94143-0758, 415-476-9872, pollick@itsa.ucsf.edu

Community Water Fluoridation (CWF) is an established, successful, public health measure to reduce the burden of dental caries in population groups. Safety of this measure is of paramount importance and concerns the effects on all aspects of the environment, including effects on people. Safety issues must also be viewed in terms of its implementation, from production and delivery of the chemical compounds used, to engineering safeguards and regulations, as well as actions taken in the event of equipment malfunctions and human error. Sixty years of experience provides evidence of safety of properly controlled fluoridation of public water supplies in terms of lack of harm to the environment and people. Equipment malfunctions and human errors that have occurred have provided increasing levels of safeguards that have been incorporated into guidelines and regulations. Continuing Quality Improvement (CQI) is an important principle that must be applied to CWF. National guidelines on safety must be the minimum basis for each State's regulations, which must be applied to each local community, water district and water wholesaler. Assurance of periodic review and updating of compliance with new guidelines and regulations must be required for each agency in charge of CWF. Appropriate funding is essential to providing CQI. Since the community shares the benefits of CWF and the cost per person receiving fluoridated water is very small, such funding for CQI activities can be acceptably incorporated into regulations. Governmental and voluntary agencies must regularly cooperate and review the science, guidelines and regulations of the safety of CWF.

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