Sir, - Dr Muiris Houston's excellent article on how aspirin can cut the risk of bowel cancer (The Irish Times, April 2nd) concludes with some eminently practical advice: attention to proper diet, adequate exercise, avoidance of foods like animal fats. For those who wish to reduce further the risk of a condition which can be fatal, he suggests taking aspirin, "having discussed with your GP whether it is safe for you to do so".
Contrast this with another widely available substance , fluoride - a chemical, between lead and arsenic in toxicity, which is added to public water to prevent the non-fatal condition of dental decay. Not only have people never been told about the possible effects of the treatment on them individually - a standard medical duty - but fluoridation actually puts at risk society's most vulnerable group. New-born infants get three times the safe level of fluoride by body weight according to the Irish Medical Journal (September 2000) as a direct result of the fluoride dosage of 1 milligram per litre in Irish public water. How many parents have ever been told ?
If Dr Houston's aspirin advice were based on the Irish fluoride model, our public water supplies should have aspirin added immediately. Since he does not propose this indiscriminate "one dose fits all", approach, does it follow that he should now recommend fluoride be taken "only after discussion with your GP"? - Yours, etc.,
Robert Pocock, Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment, Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.