M Boyask suggests chlorination of our drinking water supply is "mass medication" (Letters, June 24). That is complete nonsense.

Drinking water has been chlorinated for many decades to ensure it is wholesome and stays so until it arrives at our kitchen taps.

Its function is to remove potentially harmful bacteria from the water and to protect it from any other sources on its journey to our homes and work places.

It must rank amongst the most significant public health improvements made in the 20th Century.

The addition of fluoride to the water would indeed, be "mass medication" and has nothing to do with making it wholesome. It would be added for a totally different purpose on which many people have strongly-held views.

Both the Government and the opposition party are in favour but, from my experience, they might be well-advised to listen more closely to the views of the public.

In the early Nineties, when it was proposed the drinking water supplies to the Southampton area should be fluoridated, I had the opportunity to discuss the issue with the country's chief dental officer.

His answer to the question: "Is the use of fluoride toothpaste as effective as fluoridating water supplies?" was absolutely clear - "Yes, but you cannot make people clean their teeth."

Perhaps more effort should be made in that direction.

Stuart Derwent

-Withdean Crescent,