Fluoridation (1952)

[Music] this is Grand Rapids Michigan a town becoming widely known to dentists and municipal authorities for its fight against tooth decay the children in Grand Rapids have less tooth decay than they did 6 years ago as much as 65% less Grand Rapids fight against tooth decay started in January 1945 when floride was added to the water supply this was done as part of a study to determine the effect of fluoridation on tooth decay participating in the study our city officials dentists Michigan State Department of Health University of Michigan and the US Public Health Service after 6 years of fluoridation the study shows that the six-year-old children who drank the water from birth had 65% less tooth decay the 7-year-olds 45% less and so on one even the 16-year-olds who started drinking the water when they were 10 years old received some benefits 16% less tooth decay 16 years after fluoridation all children 16 years old and under will have 65% less tooth decay studies in Newberg New York Shaban Wisconsin Mar Texas Leon Idaho Branford Ontario and other cities show substantially the same results as those obtained at Grand Rapids other studies show the benefits of fluoridation will last throughout life most of the many communities now fluoridating add sodium silica fluoride or sodium fluoride to their water another compound also used is hydrofluosilicic acid all three are effective and cheap in a town of 5,000 population the daily amount of the fluoride compound used and its cost is sodium silica fluoride 7B cost 49 sodium fluoride 10 lb cost $120 hydrofluosilicic acid about 2 Gall $161 cents in selecting one of the three compounds the size of the town and its water plant facilities are considered three types of feeders are used to add fluoride compounds one is the solution feeder used in towns up to about 20,000 population another type is the volumetric feeder a dry feeder for towns of from 1,000 to 120,000 the third type is the gravimetric feeder for feeding the dry compound in cities of more than 120,000 all three feeders the solution feeder the volumetric feeder and the gravimetric are equipped with automatic controls and have long been used for adding chemicals to City Water Supplies generally the fluoride content of the water is determined by the color metric test in this test a color indicator is added to water samples the color of the samples is then matched with the color of Standards containing known amounts of fluoride dentists in many cities are helping to bring the benefits of FL idation to children now our children can have better health through fluoridated water they can drink away tomorrow's tooth decay have more attractive teeth the cost is about 10 cents a year per person fluoridation is endorsed by the American Dental Association State and territorial Dental Health directors American Association of Public Health dentists Public Health Service Federal Security Agency State and territorial Health officers American Public Health Association and the American Medical Association [Music]