I WOULD remind Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation (LET, September 12) and anyone else who is in favour of adding fluoride to the water supply that for every £100 spent on such a scheme £98 will be wasted as the water goes literally down the drain.

Don't take my word for it -- just compare the amount of water used in a home for drinking with that used for bathing or showering, flushing the toilet, washing clothes and dishes, watering the garden and being poured over cars.

Add in what industry uses and it is obvious that artificial fluoridation of the water supply is the least cost-effective method ever devised and we, the general public, will be required to pay for it.

Would anyone buy 100 loaves of bread and immediately throw away 98?

It seems to me that Dr Carter is more interested in a position on some league table than the reality of adding fluoride to the water supply and cares not a jot that more than 50 per cent of the population will be forced to take a medication that they neither need nor want and have not agreed to.

Just exactly when did Dr Carter receive a mandate from the public to champion the cause of enforced medication en masse?

J BUCKLEY (Mr), Holden Fold, Darwen.