The data from this and other investigations suggest that malnourished infants and children, especially if deficient in calcium intake, may suffer from the effects of water containing fluorine while healthy children would remain unaffected. . . . Thus low levels of fluoride ingestion which are generally considered to be safe for the general population may not be safe for malnourished infants and children. Therefore, the nutritional status must be carefully assessed and guarded in areas with endem
SIR, - In your annotation (Jan 28, p. 203) the preventive action of fluorides on osteoporosis is said to be confirmed by the recent findings of Bernstein et al. While it is quite possible that fluorides may have such an effect, the cited article has several deficiencies which in my opinion are severe enough to cast doubt on the validity of the results.
Of the factors known to influence the development and severity of involutional osteoporosis, age is of prime importance. In the paper under scru
