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MAR 26 IS69

Dare:
a March 24, 1969

To Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics

FROM Dr. Roy Cohn

SuBJect:

Sunday's column

Dear Josh:

It is a pleasure for me to point out to you that your quotation from

John Lear, while correct, leaves an erroneous impression. While it is ( 2-15-64 )
true that high fluoride in the water will result in absorption by the

body, there isn't any evidence with which I am familiar that this does

any harm in the quantities absorbed. The San Francisco Dialysis Center

has been using fluoride in San Francisco water for over two years now

without any evidence of the black teeth-hard bone syndrome. In our unit

recently, through some shenanigans, a de-ionizer was installed in the

line without my knowledge. The cost will probably run around $40.00 a

day, which I regard as much tooexpensive for the questionable value received.

In fact, it is possible that fluoridation may have a useful counter effect
to the steroids. Our only bone problems in the entire series in the past

five years have been aseptic necrosis of the head in three patients, none
of whom had hemodialysis.

RC: jr

Dear Roy: I would urge you to take a position on this in a response
to Lear in the Saturday Review. You will have to deal with the
literature he quotes from the Ottawa group/ I am not aware that any
one else has (and the Center /A/S¥O must have taken it seriously to
have ing$salded the deionizer.) Frankly, I might be more concerned
about flooding with Lead than with fluoride; but I don't know where
the SFO water supply stands in that regard.

If fluoride can counteract setxeniH steroidal osteoporosis
it does have an interesting effect on bone metabolism. I wish I knew
exactly what that was.

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