Fluoridation and mortality due to heart disease.

Abstract

STANDARDISED death rates in the US, due to ischaemic heart disease stopped increasing and began to decrease during the period in which large numbers of cities began fluoridating their water supplies but no notice has been taken of this effect. Gordon and Thom1 note that deaths attributable to ischaemic heart disease had been increasing until about 1960. By 1968, a clear decrease had begun, and continued until their last observations in 1972. They felt that this decrease (7.3%) could be partially explained on the basis of less severe influenza epidemics, which are thought to increase the mortality rates due to heart disease in the winter months. However, artificial fluoridation was started in 1952, and by 1969 had covered 74 million people2. Therefore, the possibility exists that fluoridation might be involved in the declining rates. Ideally, this would be checked by comparing the rates for ischaemic heart disease between fluoridated and non-fluoridated populations. The largest political units in which the distinction between fluoridated and non-fluoridated populations is clear-cut are cities; unfortunately, ischaemic heart disease is not tabulated separately for cities in the Vital Statistics publication. Ischaemic heart disease is an important part of the category ‘all heart disease’, and those data are readily available. We report here on changes in the more inclusive category (all heart disease) and fluoridation status, which support the possibility that fluoridation is associated with the decreasing rates.