Re: ‘Fluroridation calls switched from councils to DHBS' (The Weekend Sun, April 22).

The issue of adding fluoride to our drinking water was again in the news. The city council is obliged to provide residents with safe potable drinking water. This may necessitate adding certain purifying agents to ensure there are no impurities in the water which could make us sick.

There is no obligation for adding medication, whether it be painkillers, folic acid or fluoride.

Fluoride is a poison which has been banned in several countries and many states in the United States. It has been said fluoride is slightly less poisonous than arsenic and more poisonous than lead; that nothing in the human body benefited from fluoride and almost all our internal organs, our bones and our teeth were at great risk from fluoride.

And that the effects were cumulative.

This was written by Peter Daniel, an expert on fluoridation. Back in 2013, I wrote a letter to the Dominion Post which asked: Why stop at fluoride?

There has been a lot of support for adding fluoride to our water to protect children's teeth. I too am concerned that our children's teeth need extra protection. I was then a resident in Kapiti but now live in Tauranga, where there are many older people suffering from arthritis, osteoporosis and other ailments which affect us as we age.

While we are into additives in our water, why not inflict the whole of the population with glucosamine, chondroitin, coecalciferol and iron supplements and maybe even epsom salts? That should keep us all in tip-top condition. We could just put the fluoride into Coca Cola and ensure the kids actually drink it – they don't seem to drink tap-water.

Perhaps they could even stretch to a little addition of G&T around 4pm to keep us oldies happy!

A Reynolds, Pyes Pa.