Its all very well for the Academy of Medical Sciences to call for the monitoring of school pupils taking brain-boosting drugs such as Ritalin, but is it prepared to apply that demand consistently? Will it, for example, be making a pronouncement about monitoring children taking fluoridated school milk? According to the World Health Organisation, an analysis of children's urine should be considered mandatory for safety reasons when school milk fluoridation schemes are introduced because the total intake of fluorides from all sources needs to be assessed.
Such an analysis and its procedural methodology raises ethical issues. Staff delegation; the collation and transmission of the results to each child's GP and the entitlement, or otherwise, of parents to be informed, all pose significant burdens of responsibilty upon what should be a centres of learning and not unfunded pseudo health clinics.
However, If the effect of one drug requires a monitoring programme, so should they all where health effects are claimed, especially as the documented evidence against fluoride indicates a lowering of intelligence and attention deficits in the young.
Bernard J Seward Bristol
Such an analysis and its procedural methodology raises ethical issues. Staff delegation; the collation and transmission of the results to each child's GP and the entitlement, or otherwise, of parents to be informed, all pose significant burdens of responsibilty upon what should be a centres of learning and not unfunded pseudo health clinics.
However, If the effect of one drug requires a monitoring programme, so should they all where health effects are claimed, especially as the documented evidence against fluoride indicates a lowering of intelligence and attention deficits in the young.
Bernard J Seward Bristol
