Councillor takes up fight for information on
fluoridation
1984 has been and gone in most places. But not so in the 26
counties, where the government still insists on medicating the
nation, without their agreement, through fluoridating the water
supply, argues Monaghan councillor BRIAN MacUAID.
Under the 1997 Council of Europe Convention of Human Rights and
Biomedicine, a government is forbidden from giving a person any
medicine or drug without their consent. Although 23 European
countries have signed this convention, the Dublin government has
failed to do so.
Eight local authorities, Dublin Corporation, Sligo, Donegal,
Leitrim, Kildare, Clare and Kerry, have publicly opposed
fluoridation and want government to allow them to decide the
issue for themselves. They have been prevented under the 1960
Health Act from doing this.
In May last year, hard pressed Minister Mícheál Martin, who
presides over a crippled health service, set up a forum to look
at the issue of fluoridation of the water supply. The opponents
of fluoridation have rubbished this forum, which is due to report
in October. They claim the majority of its members are in favour
of the practice. Opposition is growing. Evidence is
incontrovertible that fluoridation is a danger to health.
Opponents of water fluoridation, which include most European
governments and the largest union of scientists in the American
Environmental Protection Agency, claim that it is linked to
cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, hip fractures and thyroid
disorders. Research carried out at the University of New
Hampshire in the US looked at blood levels of 150,000 children
under seven and found that exposure to fluoride is correlated
with higher levels of lead in the body which, it is well
established, can affect intelligence and cognitive ability in
children.
The chemical used to fluoridate the water supply in Ireland,
technically known an hydrofluosilic acid, is in fact a waste
component of the Dutch and Finnish fertiliser industries. These
industries, of course, must judge themselves most fortunate that
Ireland buys this toxic by-product, which would be expensive to
dispose of otherwise. The acid, which is very corrosive, contains
arsenic, chromium and uranium. Such a stroke of luck that the
Department of Health continues to pump 2,000 gallons of this
compound every day into the state's reservoirs for drinking
water, and even has the legislation in place to bar changing the
practice.
Recently, a four-year-old study was uncovered which had been
conducted in the Dublin Dental Hospital. This study looked at the
fluoride dose of bottle feeding infants and concluded that it was
unsafe to continue using fluoridated water to mix baby formulae.
Dr Don MacAuley, dental adviser to the Fluoride Free Water
campaign, explains that there was no follow up study. ``The
Department of Health continues to state that we are all safe and
that prescription by thirst is scientific. It is shocking to
think that the doctors have known of this problem for many years
and done nothing.''
MacAuley, a Navan-based dentist, first became aware of the health
effects of fluoridation when he investigated the high prevalence
of children visiting his surgery with skeletal fluorosis, a brown
scaling or rotting of the teeth, which is the first sign of too
much fluoride in the system.
Water fluoridation was first introduced in Ireland back in the
1980s. It was justified on grounds that people from lower
socio-economic backgrounds were not able to care for their teeth
without state intervention. It would seem that the state's
intervention in imposing mandatory medication on the people,
against the wishes of democratically elected representatives, is
not only unethical but has damaged the nation's health and teeth.
Monaghan County Councillor Brian MacUaid is one of several
councillors to raise the question of fluoridation with his local
authority. Last November, Brian placed fluoridation on the
agenda, and called for an information seminar so councillors
could consider the issue. But last month the Health Board refused
the invitation to make a presentation to Monaghan County Council,
indicating that a presentation should be deferred until the
Report of the Forum on Fluoridation is available. On this ground,
the council will not be going ahead with the information seminar.
``This is not surprising,'' says Brian MacUaid. ``Substantial
evidence has emerged over recent years on the health implications
of fluoridation of drinking water, and these have been suppressed
by the profession and the department. It is really outrageous
that the elected representatives, who are ultimately responsible
for the damage to people's health, are not allowed to even
consider informing themselves on this issue.''