
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991                   TAG: 9102200542
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY FINDS NO FLUORIDE, CANCER LINK

Federal health officials Tuesday recommended continued use of fluoride to help prevent tooth decay, saying a yearlong review of scientific studies has found no evidence that it causes cancer in humans.

"In contrast, the benefits are great and easy to detect," said Dr. James Mason, assistant secretary for health in the Health and Human Services Department.

The study, described as the most comprehensive ever focused by the federal government on fluoride, was requested a year ago after study showed that test rats fed high doses of fluoride over their lifetimes developed a rare cancer.

"Optimal fluoridation of drinking water does not pose a detectable cancer risk to humans," the report said.

The Center for Health Action, a clearinghouse for information on the effects of fluoride, said the report's conclusions were unfounded, inconsistent and do not justify continued water fluoridation.

Susan Pare, president of the group, pointed to the report's findings that fluoride may weaken bones, that a dental condition in which teeth become mottled from too much fluoride has increased in some areas and that fluoride can change cell structure in animals and in human cells in tissue culture.

"I consider any one of those risks enough to change the policy of water fluoridation," she said.

by CNB