DAILY MAIL. Earlier this month it was announced that fluoride will be added to the water supplies of millions more Britons under Government plans to improve dental health.

While the mineral has been added to water supplies in parts of the UK for decades – and NHS and experts including chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty insist it is inherently safe – the plans are not without controversy and have attracted unfounded internet conspiracy theories.

So what’s the truth about fluoride’s health benefits and drawbacks? And what else is lurking in our tap water in the UK? Could it be doing any harm?

Our interactive graphic below shows the key chemicals and even pathogens we might unknowingly drink every day.

The specific level of substances detected varied across the country and represent only minute traces per litre. Of the thousands of tests conducted only a small fraction returned a positive result above threshold levels.

FLUORIDE

Fluoride is abundantly safe at the levels most consume. Yet it’s still a huge source of controversy.

Adding it to drinking water is a flashpoint issue in the US, with presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr even labelling it ‘neurotoxic’ and vowing to remove it from drinking supplies if elected.

Britain isn’t immune to these sentiments. Both the Green Party and Tories have opposed it in the past, partly in response to pressure from local communities.

Some studies have previously linked fluoridation to cases of Down’s syndrome in babies, and rates of kidney stones and even some cancers.

However, the NHS and experts like Sir Chris Whitty say these claims are ‘exaggerated and unevidenced’.

Outlandish conspiracy theories touting fluoride as a plot by the global elite to depopulate the world or that it is being used for mind control purposes are also frequently spread online.

Only one health issue has been definitely linked to fluoride: a problem called fluorosis. Dental fluorosis is the most common form and occurs when a child’s teeth are exposed to too much of the mineral while developing.

This leads to fine, pearly white lines or flecking appearing on the surface of the teeth.

Severe cases can cause the tooth’s enamel to become pitted or discoloured, however health officials say this is incredibly rare in the UK.

A more extreme version is skeletal fluorosis, but this typically occurs in areas where fluoride levels are naturally high, rather than places where it is artificially added.

The risk of fluorosis is one of the reasons why the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends fluoride in drinking supply shouldn’t go above 1.5 mg/L, a limit also set in the UK.

In the UK, excess fluoride of any source is removed in drinking water as part of the treatment process to bring it to at most the standard 1.5mg/L level.

Some 6.1million people in England, about one in 10, currently receive fluoridated water.

However, this is set to change with the Government vowing to add fluoride into the supplies of another 1.6million people, with further expansions planned for the future.

Latest data from the Government’s Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which monitors drinking water supplies to ensure they meet safety parameters, shows there were zero fluoride breaches for public water supplies in 2022.

Public water is what the vast majority of the population in England receive because it is supplied by water companies.

However, 1.4 per cent of tests for private water supplies, those provided on site in rural areas, such as farms, as well as some hotels and resorts, breached UK fluoride restrictions.

The safety of private water supplies is the responsibility of the area’s relevant local authority.

Professor Alan Boobis, a toxicology expert at Imperial College London and government advisor, said levels of fluoride in water in the UK are not a health concern.

‘I do not believe that there are any specific health concerns from exposure to fluoride at the safety standard levels,’ he said.

However, he added that he didn’t believe universal fluoridation of water supplies in Britain is needed to prevent dental problems as background levels are high enough to achieve sufficient benefit.

Professor James Coulson, a toxicology expert at Cardiff University, agreed that levels of fluoride in water are of little cause for concern.

‘Patients exposed to doses of less than 5mg/kg body weight are unlikely to show features of toxicity (350 mg for an adult).

‘Daily doses of 20 to 80 mg over 10 to 20 years are associated with chronic fluorosis (staining of the teeth).

‘The upper limit of 1.5 mg/L (equivalent to 0.06 mg/kg for a 70 kg adult drinking three litres a day) is likely to be protective.’

However, he added that when considering these figures, drinking water is not the only source of many substances and people can consume more through their diet for example.

Professor Coulson added that specific figures can change for children and those with health conditions.

Original article online at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13098119/tap-water-millions-Britons-fluoride-supply-interactive-guide-bugs-chemicals-plastics-lurking.html