UK County Council rejects proposal to mass fluoridate water supply
Despite the best efforts of the UK's Chief Dental Officer, Secretary of State for Health and the Strategic Health Authorities to foist water fluoridation on an unwilling populace, thankfully the County Council for Hampshire have voted against fluoridating the county's water supply.
Read the full letter from the leader of Hampshire County
Council to the South Central Strategic Health Authorities (SHA), outlining in the politest possible terms how the Scrutiny Committee has rejected the SHA proposal to fluoridate Hampshire drinking water.
Interestingly, this letter was sent on the same day that the full County Council came out strongly in opposition to the Councillors of Southampton (after changing their votes three times) who voted by 26 to 18 in favour of fluoridation of Southampton water.
The significant points in the Hampshire County Council Scrutiny Committee's report are as follows-
- An adequate case for fluoridation was not made, despite the personal intervention of the Chief Dental Officer who came to promote it in Southampton.
- Much of the justification rested on faulty data (e.g. teeth metrics were only for 5 yr olds and not 8, 12 or 15 yr olds by which age the case for fluoridation disappears).
- Many of the questions, including the legality of the practice, that were raised by the Panel were not answered by the SHA.
- The costings were not considered complete or credible.
- Alternative means of targeting those at risk of dental caries are more cost-effective and would not involve treating the whole population who are not at risk.
Click here for the UK Council Against Fluoridation who are fighting similar battles in North Yorkshire and the North West of England.
The whole question of water fluoridation is still very much an issue in the UK, with the the government still appearing hellbent on foisting fluoridation on a mostly unwilling general public.
If you live in the UK and are unhappy about the prospect of having your water supply mass-medicated without your consent, please consider writing to your local councillor and making your case known. You can access more information from the UK Council Against Fluoridation site (above). We would urge you to encourage your neighbours to write and express their concerns, as the more the anti-fluoride campaign gains momentum, the more the councillors will take heed and realise that their re-election may be at stake.
The fluoride struggle in Ireland
This good piece of news was brought to us by Robert Pocock in Ireland, who is their lead campaigner against fluoridation, operating through the environmental group VOICE.
The Irish government has forced fluoridation on its population and large numbers of people, including children, are now suffering the many side-effects of this shortsighted strategy which aims to deal with dental health.
Good dental hygiene and a healthy diet, low in sugar, are far preferred solutions to the dental caries problem and it beggars belief in this day and age that mass fluoridation via the water supply, particularly given the difficulty of controlling the dosage, can even be considered by health authorities.
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Updated: 9 Dec 2008
