Fluoride levels in drinking water in western Europe

Updated 2020

This page has information on fluoride levels in tap water and bottled water in western Europe. Tap water data are provided for Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The next page has info on salt fluoridation and other systemic fluoride treatments, and dental statistics. It also takes a closer look at Scotland and the Netherlands.

The inconvenient truth

The perpetrators of forced-fluoridation often try to explain away the fact that reported dental caries rates are just as low in nonfluoridated western European countries as they are in countries where forced-fluoridation is committed by exaggerating fluoride exposure in the former. According to the Fluoride Action Network website, the Irish Republic (73% of the population), Spain (11% of the population), and Britain (11% of the population) are the only countries in western Europe which subject their populations to fluoride pollution in their tap water, making up just 3% of the total western European population. Those figures come originally from the British Fluoridation Society (BFS) website.

Although the numbers for Ireland and Britain look about right, 11% for Spain appears to be an overestimate (and the BFS says it’s 10% for Britain, for what it’s worth). The BFS lists only one source of information for Spain, which is from 2005, even though there is now a 2013 edition of the book (Odontología preventiva y comunitaria: Principios, métodos y aplicaciones edited by Emili Cuenca Sala and Pilar Baca García), which appears to have always only been available in Spanish. I have found many sources of information, mostly via water utilities, government, and academic publications, and all of the recent sources are consistent on 2 points: (1) the Basque Country accounts for the majority of forced-fluoridation in Spain (legislation passed in 1998 imposes it on cities with more than 30,000 inhabitants); (2) forced-fluoridation is no longer inflicted on anyone living in Andalusia (the mid-1980s Decrees which enabled it were repealed in 2009). The BFS lists Seville, Córdoba, and Linares, which are in Andalusia and which account for a large proportion of its 11% estimate, among its force-fluoridated communities, so removing Andalusia from the calculation makes a big difference. At this point I am not able to make a precise estimate, but forced-fluoridation is probably inflicted on no more than 5% of the Spanish population.

Whatever the exact figure for western Europe, the European Union has unfortunately not done anything to protect that small minority from their governments, and in the case of Britain has lost the chance to do so.

Of the countries which are not currently guilty of forced-fluoridation, they all either never force-fluoridated or have not done so since 1973 at the latest, apart from Finland, which appears to have ceased in 1992. The reunified Germany and the Czech Republic have never force-fluoridated, but the former East Germany and Czechoslovakia did. Ireland is the only western European nation which has ever inflicted this crime on most of its population, and a large majority of the other countries either never force-fluoridated or have inflicted it on a small minority. Some of the public water supplies in western Europe are “naturally fluoridated”, but only small minorities of the population in each country are provided with water from those supplies. A small minority of bottled waters are “naturally fluoridated” to “optimal levels” or above.

Fluoride levels in tap water in western Europe

Below is a list of western (or thereabouts) European cities, with links to the latest information I could find on fluoride concentrations in the public water supplies of those cities. For each of the 5 most populous countries, namely England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, the 5 most populous cities or metropolitan areas have been listed. For the other countries with populations of at least 4 million, I have attempted to provide data for the 3 most populous communities in each country.

The fluoride concentrations are predominantly much lower than the 0.7 to 1.0 ppm nominal concentrations most commonly used for artificial water fluoridation, and mostly below 0.2 ppm. The information is not complete, and I’m only proficient in English so it’s possible there are some mistakes, but there has been no selective reporting. Apart from in Ireland, which inflicts forced-fluoridation on everyone with a public water supply, the only community on the list which is artificially fluoridated is Birmingham, England. No other cities had fluoride concentrations consistently above 0.5 ppm, though Copenhagen is in the ballpark, and Valencia is listed as 0.3 to 0.7 ppm. Information on bottled water is listed at the bottom of the page.

Note that even though the fluoride concentrations are overwhelmingly low in comparison to those used for forced-fluoridation, they are not necessarily safe. The idea that naturally occurring fluoride is more or less harmless is a myth, and as a point of reference, the fluoride concentration of breastmilk is around 0.004 ppm (equivalent to 4 parts per billion). Fluoride is a highly toxic, cumulative poison. All figures below are in parts per million (ppm), or equivalently milligrams per litre (mg/L).

Austria

Austria has never inflicted forced-fluoridation on its population.
infoportal trinkwasser
Fluoridkompendium (from 2015 – PDF, 754 KB)

Vienna: Lobau less than 0.20, Moosbrunn less than 0.20
Stadt Wien
Graz: 0.05 – 0.08
Holding Graz
Linz: Goldwörth 0.11, Scharlinz 0.12, Plesching 0.10, Heilham 0.12, Fischdorf 0.10, Haid 0.11 (data from August 2009)
Linz verändert (PDF, 24 KB)

The inconvenient truth

Fluoride levels in tap water in western Europe

Austria

Belgium

Britain

England

Scotland

Croatia

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Ireland (Republic of)

Italy

Netherlands

Norway

Portugal

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Fluoride levels in bottled water in western Europe

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