In 2014, Israel will end the process of fluoridating water. Israel will join most of the other wealthy Western countries in not adding fluoride to the public water supply. In fact, over 97% of the population of Europe lives in a non-fluoridated area.
Why is Israel stopping the process of fluoridation of the water supply? The answer is simple: The Israeli health ministry realizes that there is no data that adding fluoride to the water supply has any health benefit and they understand that water fluoridation is harmful.
In response to the Israeli decision to end water fluoridation, Paul Connett, PhD, an expert on fluoride wrote, “Zealous fluoridation promoters try to convince the American public that ‘everyone drinks fluoridated water.’ But the opposite is true. An overwhelming number of countries do not fluoridate. In fact, over half the people in the world drinking fluoridated water live in the U.S. We are the odd ones out.” Fluoridation is an outdated, unscientific, failed public health blunder.”(1)
Over 60 years ago, in the U.S., water fluoridation was promoted in order to decrease the number of tooth cavities. However, even 60 years ago, there were no studies proving that fluoridation of water would result in a decrease in cavities. Now, 60 years later, there still are no studies showing that there is any significant tooth benefit from water fluoridation. Data from the World Health Organization show that there is no difference in cavity rate between countries that do and do not fluoridate their water.