[quote=Cpt Toellner]
It is true, and I did a report on it for my Environmental Ethics class. There are varying levels of this theory, but we do know that it started when a prominent aluminum for US weaponry needed to get rid of excess fluoride, a by-product of the aluminum process. They commissioned a scientist with a dubious past that proclaimed fluoride was beneficial for the development of teeth. Many tests show that children in non-flouridated countries have worse teeth issues than those in countries that use fluoride, but most tests where third-world vs first world, so those results could be off.That is the end of the hard facts, now some people believe the fluoride is not beneficial at all and is just a way for metal companies to sell their waste by-products to communities everywhere. The true believers know however that the Nazis experimented with water flouridification to make the populace more docile. And the US government got access to their notes and implemented the process.
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As a guy who works in the industry, water fluoridation is entirely up to the municipality and not the federal government. In the dosages you'll find, there's no adverse health effects, physically or mentally. It just makes your denist happy.

The main reason you won't find flouride in some places is cost and the fact it's another of many parameters operators have to monitor and it does nothing to help in the treatment process.