LIKE the proverbial tennis ball, the arguments over whether drinking water supplies should have fluoride added to them will bounce back and forth for the foreseeable future. As far as many dentists are concerned, fluoride helps to prevent tooth decay and is not known to harm people's general health.

The addition of a little fluoride to drinking water supplies may prevent hours of painful problems and costly dental surgery. But critics highlight fears that fluoride may be poisonous in the long term if ingested regularly. They also suggest that in areas where fluoridation is the norm - as in some cities in the USA - the effect has not been as beneficial as expected. The attitude of the water company Yorkshire Water is only to be expected. The company is capable of adding fluoride to water supplies, but does not want to have to make the decision whether to or not. Company officials quite rightly think that decision should be left to the Government.

The addition of fluoride would be the first time something is put into to supplies that is not connected to the provision of clean, safe drinking water and that's what makes some people choke. It sets a precedent and who is to say where it would stop. If next year a drugs company announced the creation of a soluble chemical compound which removed the craving for nicotine from people who ingested it regularly. Smoking related diseases are a major health issue today and you would not find it hard to find people convinced that the magic ingredient should be added to water supplies to help people give up. And what about a new appetite suppressant drug which worked only on clinically obese people - should that go in as well?

Understandably, there are those who think that 'medicating' our water supply is not acceptable. Perhaps there should be a campaign to fluoridate all the sugar filled fizzy drinks, sweets and chocolate we consume by the truck load every day.

The benefit would work in two ways: we get fluoride protection if we carry on eating them, and if we are put off buying them by the addition the chemical, that would also be good for our teeth.