6 September 2001 Edition

Resize: A A A Print

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.''


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland