SIR - The proposal to add folic acid to bread is continuing the worrying trend of mass medication as Graham Hoyle (T&A, May 22) correctly points out.

Although the government are quick to state the addition of folic acid might' save up to 120 babies per year, they are not as eager to tell us about the possible adverse effects which include the masking of symptoms of anaemia and that a high intake of folic acid has been associated with a speeding up process of certain cancers.

Let's also be clear, this is not natural folic acid they are proposing to administer to us, but a synthetically produced folic acid.

Scientists are not even sure if the synthetically created version will work in the same way as naturally occurring acid.

Whether folic acid is good for us or not is immaterial. Mass medication is wrong, period.

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford & District Chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury