Letter: Fluoride is a nutrient, not a medication

Tom Lankering continues to utilize the big-lie technique, as not one of his allegedly factual statements about fluoride is true (“Using drinking water to deliver medication is both ineffective and inappropriate,” Letters to the Editor, Aspen Daily News, May 23). As he has been writing the same nonsense since at least 2011, he must be confident that the technique will ultimately be successful, and for once, he may be right.

In addition, Tom persists in calling fluoride a medication. Our National Academy of Sciences — some 2,200 of our top, mostly academic, scientists with almost 200 Nobel Laureates — has recognized fluoride as an essential nutrient for the past 47 years. The Food and Drug Administration has recognized fluoride as an essential nutrient for 42 years. We are not medicating the water; we are fortifying the water as we do with adding iodine (dangerous poison, Tom) to table salt and calcium and folic acid to bread (acid! — might eat a hole in our stomachs, Tom).

The Internet has been a boon to informational access, but it requires the ability to separate valid information from the invalid. It is only too obvious that not everyone is equipped to do so.

Dr. William Glenn III

Vero Beach, Florida, and Aspen Highlands