Further to your report Doctors 'struggling to cope' with upsurge in hip fractures ( News, last week ), the republic of Ireland is the most fluoridated country in the world. There is well documented epidemiological literature associating hip and other fractures with drinking-water fluoridation. It would be most illuminating to compare the reported hip fracture rates with those in unfluoridated Northern Ireland. This finding should be yet another nail in the coffin of this unwarranted mass medicaiton. We certainly should not be extending the practice in the UK.