ISIS Press Release 07/01/05
No to Fluoridation
The "mass medication" of UK's drinking water with a listed
poison will cost London's health authorities alone more than £21
million. Sam Burcher
reports
Sources
for this article are posted on ISIS members' website. Details here.
Fluoridation for all of England and Wales
Fluoridation was introduced into the UK in the 1960s when areas
in and around Birmingham and Newcastle were fluoridated, along with
the Republic of Northern Ireland, making up 11% of the UK
population. The Government has now decided to put fluoride into all
public water supplies in England and Wales, with the aim of reducing
tooth decay among children in "deprived" areas.
Under the Water Bill 2003, water providers will be obliged to add
fluoride to their supplies. According to a letter from health
minister Hazel Blears and environment minister Elliott Morley to the
Deputy PM John Prescott, "those who remain adamantly opposed would
be able to use water filters that remove fluoride or buy bottled
drinking water".
Campaigners opposed to fluoride include the National Pure Water
Association (NPWA), Green Network and The Green Party. Green Party
spokesperson Martin Skrewsbury says, "The general trend in the world
is against fluoridation." He pointed out that the risks of tooth
decay in fluoridated Gateshead and non-fluoridated Liverpool are the
same.
Dental disease increases six-fold by fluoridation
The American Journal of Diseases of Children states: "With
few exceptions the biochemistry of fluorine (fluoride) emphasis its
toxic features. The production of endemic dental fluorosis in human
beings by drinking water is an outstanding example of the toxic
effect of the excessive intake of the element." Dental fluorosis is
fluoride poisoning that causes hypomineralisation (irregular
calcification) and a disorder of ameloblasts (enamel forming cells)
that mottle, weaken and discolour children's teeth. In 2000, the
Newcastle NHS Trust reported dental fluorosis in 54% of children
aged 8-9 years compared to 24% of 8-9 year olds in non-fluoridated
Northumberland.
In 1999, Baroness Hayman responded in a Written Answer for the
Government, "We accept that dental fluorosis is a manifestation of
systemic toxicity." Despite this sanction, the Government have
backtracked on the safety of fluoride, supported by the British
Dental Association, which states that fluoride is a positive step to
narrowing the health inequalities that currently exist.
Fluoride is poison
Hydrofluosilic acid and other fluorosilicates are not naturally
occurring. They are waste products derived from the industrial
manufacture of aluminium, zinc, uranium, aerosols, insecticides,
fertilizers, plastics, lubricants and pharmaceuticals.
Professor Kaj Roholm, the author of the first and most
comprehensive monograph on fluorosilicates classifies
hydrofluorisilic acid and hexafluorisilic acid as "extremely toxic."
One chemical company selling fluoride to water suppliers describes
it as "a colourless to straw yellow, transparent, fuming, corrosive
liquid with a pungent odour and irritating action on the skin."
Hydrofluorsilic acid is listed as Part II poison under the
Poisons Act 1972. As such its use as a commercially ingestible
product in water contravenes the UK and EU pharmaceutical
legislations governing the regulation of medicinal substances as
well as the Poisons Act.
Natural fluoride occurs in mineral salts such as calcium fluoride
and magnesium fluoride.
Worldwide rejection
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway
Switzerland, West Germany, Netherlands and Italy have all banned the
addition of hydrofluorosilic acid to drinking water. So have Japan
and India, where fluoride occurs naturally and skeletal fluorosis
(thickening of bones) is prevalent. In 1942, the Lancet
reported severe dental fluorosis in areas where natural calcium
fluoride concentrations of one ppm (part per million) - the
Governments "safe" limit - caused skeletal defects in children with
poor nutrition.
Dr John Colquhoun, former Principal Dental Officer for Auckland,
New Zealand changed his mind about fluoride when his worldwide study
revealed that dental decay was "slightly better in children in
non-flouridated areas" and fluoride caused more harm than good to
children's teeth.
Professor Hardy Limeback, a consultant to the Canadian Dental
Association also studied the health effects of fluoride on children
in fluoridated Toronto. He found an increasing trend in Torontonians
having double the level of fluoride in hipbones compared to children
in unfluoridated Montreal. Prof Limeback warned that children under
three years should never drink fluoridated water or use fluoride
toothpaste or products and fluoridated water must never be used for
making baby formula. He rebuts the safety of fluoride and is
concerned that no tests have been undertaken by the international
pro-fluoride lobby to assess the effects of fluoride accumulation.
The WHO is aware of over-exposure to fluorides and concludes in
its 1994 monograph Fluoride and Dental Health, "Dental and
public health administrators should be aware of the total fluoride
exposure in the population before introducing any additional
fluoride programme for caries (tooth cavities) prevention."
Bad for bones
Since 1990, 54 US and Canadian cities have rejected
hydrofloursilic acid, but some 60% of the US remains fluoridated. In
these areas there has been a dramatic increase of osteosarcoma (bone
cancer) in young males aged between 9-19. A National Cancer
Institute Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Program recorded
an increase of 79% of osteosarcomas in young men living in
fluoridated areas of Iowa and Seattle. But in the unfluoridated
areas the incidence of bone cancer decreased by 4%.
In New Jersey, rates of osteosarcoma was three to seven times
higher among males aged between 10-19 than in unfluoridated regions.
This evidence is supported by the US National Toxicology Program,
which recorded a statically significant dose-related increase of
osteosarcoma in young male rats ingesting fluoride. A paper
published in Science in the 1980's stated that fluoride
directly affects bone cells by increasing proliferation and alkaline
phosphatase activity. It also enhances growth and mineralisation of
embryonic bone.
Five major epidemiological studies from France, the UK and the US
show higher rates of hip fractures in fluoridated regions. The US
has the highest number of hip and other bone fractures and the
longest history of fluoride use. In 1997, the EPA scientists went on
record against the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water.
Links to obesity and hypothyroid
Water in the West Midlands has been fluoridated for forty years.
In 2003, the region topped the UK's "fat list" with 22% of the
population classed as clinically obese. Doctors are concerned that
pregnant mothers ingesting fluoride from drinking water are
pre-disposing their offspring to obesity.
Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield, a thyroid specialist, believes that
fluoride is partially to blame for the high incidence of under
active thyroid problems in Birmingham. He says, "There is no doubt
that fluoride is enzyme disruptive and one thing it affects is
thyroid hormones." This is because fluoride interferes with the
uptake of iodine crucial for the regulation of hormones. Dr
Peatfield was suspended by the GMC (General Medical Council) because
he made natural thyroid treatments available to his patients. He was
subsequently reinstated.
Up until the 1950s, European doctors used fluoride to reduce the
symptoms of an overactive thyroid gland. However, the maximum daily
intake of 6.6mg per day of fluoride by populations overexposed to
fluoride exceeds the maximum dose of 4.6mg used to depress the
thyroid gland. In the US, an estimated 13 million women have been
diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, and drugs used to treat
hypothyroid were the second most prescribed medication in 1999.
Campaign against fluoride
A recent study of five primary schools around Birmingham
indicated that 34% of young children had dental fluorosis. Peter
Mansfield of The National Pure Water Association (NPWA) tested 200
volunteers in the West Midlands and found that 60% had four times
the "safe" level of fluoride in their urine. The NPWA has campaigned
against fluoridation for 4 decades. These are some of the their
concerns:
- The susceptibility of children to toxic substances in water
and the environment
- The toxicity of fluoride in water
- The prevalence of dental fluorosis
- Failure to apply the Precautionary Principle
- Violations of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union 2000
The junior health minister for England and Wales estimates that
15% more children will have less dental decay because of mass
fluoridation. But how many more will have dental fluorosis, and
accumulative health problems caused by fluoride? And the chief
target group for fluoridation, the less well off, are being deprived
of choice, for it is precisely they who will not be able to afford
bottled water and filters, to protect their children from a poison
more toxic than lead.
The York Review (2000) on the safety and effectiveness of
water fluoridation, presented by England's Department of Health
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (NHS CRD) at York University,
states that "48% of children in optimum fluoridated areas worldwide
have dental fluorosis and that 12.5% have symptoms of "aesthetic
concern." They conclude there is "surprisingly little research" into
the harmful effects from fluoride and recommend "high quality
research" into fluoride's possible links with infant mortality, IQ
and congenital defects.
Scotland's devolved parliament pulled the plug on plans to add
fluoride to Scotland's drinking water in November 2004. The first
minister said, "We will not be changing the current legislation on
fluoridation of the water supply in this parliament. We will however
bring forward a range of other measures to improve the dental health
of children, especially in their early years."
To participate in a letter writing campaign to stop water
companies adding fluoride to tap water contact the National Pure
Water Association (NPWA) http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/
or http://www.greenparty.org.uk/ | 
