EcoHealth News
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Oct/Nov 2004

Water Fluoridation: Poison for Profit

In an open letter of 31 August to the Queensland Premier and the Minister for Health, the Lord Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Brisbane and Queensland City/Shire Councillors, a professional group representing over 1,500 doctors, dentists and scientists has made a determined stand against a proposal to fluoridate more of Queensland's water supplies.

The spokesperson for Professionals Against Water Fluoridation, Dr John Ryan (a Brisbane GP specialising in preventive and early intervention therapies), said the group is extremely disappointed in the Queensland state government for supporting water fluoridation without seeking advice from those opposed to it. However, he said he's heartened by Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's comments that the onus needs to be on the pro-fluoridation group to prove its case. Mr Newman's predecessor Jim Soorley presided over a 1997 Task Force that decided overwhelmingly against fluoridating Brisbane's water. Yet the Australian Dental Association's Queensland branch is back on the warpath and trying to influence public opinion through the press and the airwaves.

Decades of evidence proves that water fluoridation is unsafe, unethical, unscientific, unnecessary, inequitable, ineffective and costly as a public health solution. It is also a form of mass medication – an inherently unconstitutional practice. Despite what the supporters of fluoridation claim, there is no medical evidence to show that ingestion of fluoride compounds improves dental health; any benefits from fluoride can only come from topical application.

Evidence supporting the link between fluoride ingestion and organ damage is growing as increasing numbers of people find themselves affected by arthritis, bone disorders, dental diseases, glandular and immune system deficiencies, neurological problems and other fluoride-related illnesses. Considering that the fluoride compounds added to many town water supplies in Australia are toxic waste by-products of the aluminium-processing and phosphate fertiliser industries, is it any wonder that these chemicals are having a detrimental effect on public health?

Adding poison to our precious water supplies is hardly clever preventive medicine. The PAWF group urges Queenslanders to study the evidence showing harm from long-term fluoride ingestion and inform their state members and local councillors of the facts.

[Sources: PAWF release, 31 August 2004; Fluoride Action Network, http://www.fluoridealert.org; NEXUS, October–November 2004]

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", August/September 2005; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]