The heads of the Dental Programs from all 50 states attended the Fourth Annual Conference of State Dental Directors discussing the topic of water fluoridation. Dr. F. A. BULL is the State Dental Director of Wisconsion and also the host of the conference.

The following statements are from a transcription made of the meeting and the following statements were made to the attendees during the general session.

Dr. BULL: "Water contains a number of substances that are undesirable, and fluorides are just one of them."

Dr. BULL: "Now, in regard to toxicity, I noticed that Dr. Bain used the term "adding sodium fluoride." we never do that. That is rat poison. You add fluorides. … But this toxicity question is a difficult one."

Dr. BULL: "We are living down some past history a lot of us helped create. These fellows can just take the statements of the American Dental Association or the U.S. Public Health Service or the deans of dental schools or research workers around the country, and they can prove to you that we are absolutely crazy for even thinking about fluoridation. You are going to have to live that down. There is no way of avoiding it"

DR. BULL: "I wish I knew the answer to these questions. I don't know why they didn't include a letter from about two-thirds of the deans of the dental schools of the universities saying fluoride is rat poison and shouldn't be used."

DR. BULL: "You know these research people-they can't get over their feeling that you have to have test tube and animal research before you start applying it to human beings."

Dr. BULL: "One thing that is a little hard to handle is the charge that fluoridation not needed. They talk of other methods, and when they get through adding up all the percentages of decay that we can reduce by such methods, we end up in a minus. When they take us at our own word they make awful liars out of us. And that will be brought up."

Dr. BULL "Let me tell you the PTA is a honey when it comes to fluoridation."

DR. JOHNS (Texas): "The University of Texas had a research project on some white mice.. But there was the rumor that this research project indicated that fluoridation of water supplies causes cancer."

Dr. BULL: "To be able to show progress in water fluoridation, an annual dental examination is a waste of time and effort since annual changes are not of sufficient magnitude to be impressive."

Dr. BULL "For example, speak of controlled rather than artificial fluoridation; eggshell white rather than chalky appearance in describing tooth color."

The entire 52 page transcript is available in pdf format.