Shortly before the end of World War II, controlled experiments in water fluoridation began in the United States. The purpose of these experiments was to prove the hypothesis that moderate levels of fluoride in drinking water could prevent cavities. The experiments were deemed a success and by 1951 fluoridation became an official policy of the U.S. Public Health Service. By 1961 water fluoridation reached widespread use in the United States affecting the drinking water of some 50 million Americans.

Almost from the beginning fluoridation has been condemned. Condemnation ranging from the dire — government overstepping its boundaries by supplying, in …