Hampshire campaign

Hampshire campaigners are still working hard to stop water fluoridation there. Click on the pic to see their advert to counter ones being put in by the health authorities.

Appalled by Southampton City vote

The Safe Water Campaign met today in Stroud and there was anger at the Southampton City Council decision - see last blog - also feedback about one of our members visit to Southampton to join their public meeting. Update - just in - great news here re Hampshire County Council vote.

Bernard's letter today to the Southampton Echo in response to yesterdays news:

I was appalled to see the council vote go so substantially in favour of fluoridation when, on the evidence I have followed these last few months, so much of the public opinion in your area was firmly against it. What are we to make of councillors who, instead of conscience in making decisions likely to bring negative health prospects upon so large a section of the community?

Your health chief Andrew Mortimer lied to you when he trivialised the fluoride addition, pretending it to be the same as was all ready in the water you are drinking. The fluoride in toothpaste is usually Sodium fluoride but that is not benign, having been formerly available as an over-the-counter rodent poison in the USA. The water additive chemicals are industrial wastes, diSodium fluorosilcates and Hexafluorosilicic acid, never tested for human consumption; never subjected to the rigorous testing as befits all other drugs whether proprietory or prescribed;and certainly not tested as being safe.

The complex of those chemicals derived from phosphate rock conversion in the manufacture of fertilizer, includes a range of heavy metals including the deadly neurotoxicants lead, mercury and cadmium. The cancer causing agents Silicon, Chromium and even Polonium are also present and in the light of the recent recall of vast numbers of lead-painted toys imported from China, the World Health Organisation has repeated its standard position, namely "There is no safe lead level for children" To establish a measurable standard the WHO maxima for lead is 0.02 parts per million. The NHS claim for safety with fluoride is 1.0 parts per million. Divide the first figure into the second and it will be plain to see that the NHS is comfortable with a compound fifty times the internationally agreed maximum concentration for lead. Are we, as members of the British public, prepared to stand by and watch our elected members conspire to commit an act of criminal attack on us and our children by insisting that fluoride is good for us?

When the fluoride-related amendment to the 2003 Water Act was pushed illegally to a vote in Parliament and passed, I wrote to my pro-fluoride MP Dr Doug Naysmith (Labour Bristol North West), pointing out that the fluoride resistance movement had not been eliminated. The battle for corruption-free public health, at all levels, would continue, and so it has. Your councillor who attempted to intimidate the others should be referred to the Ombudsman for Health under a maladministration charge. Democracy was not well served at Wednesday's council meeting.

Bernard J Seward
National Pure Water Association
Safe Water Campaign for Avon, Glos and Wilts

Southampton Councillors let down their voters

From Hampshire Against Fluoridation today:

Southampton City Councillors at their Full Council meeting on Thursday 19th November chose to ignore the wishes of their electors and voted 26 to 18 to support the water fluoridation proposals for Southampton. This was despite admitting that most of the Southampton electorate are against fluoridation. In one case a Councillor stated that every letter and email he had received asked him to vote against fluoridation.

Every other Council in the area has considered fluoridation carefully and to date they have all without exception voted against water fluoridation. Southampton Councillors had a flawed Health panel review of the subject which was undermined by one Councillor who clearly had made up his mind before hearing any evidence and tried to undermine everything that those opposing fluoridation said. The Full Council then refused to hear a deputation to state the case against fluoride to every Councillor, meaning that many of the statements made just lacked an understanding of the serious and widespread scientific evidence of harmful side effects of fluoridation.

John Spottiswoode, Chairperson of Hampshire Against Fluoridation said: “It makes one ashamed to live under a Council that is quite happy to force people across the city to drink water that is contaminated with a known toxin. The Councillors ignored the warnings from some of the most eminent and respected scientists of the dangers. They also ignored the most comprehensive review of fluoridation in the world, the National Research Council, that warned of the dangers of brain damage, brittle bones, thyroid toxicity and bone cancers. When most countries across Europe have tried water fluoridation and abandoned it as ineffective and dangerous, why should we in Southampton be forced to go down this scientifically discredited route? ”

Americans vote to reject Water Fluoridation

The campaign in Hampshire continues - here is one of their latest news releases - a couple of Gloucestershire campaigners are set to join them in Hampshire in the coming week - see more re their campaign here:

Whilst Southampton debates whether to add fluoride to our drinking water supply, it is interesting to note votes in the USA on the subject, which were somewhat overshadowed by the Presidential election. 53 communities, with a combined population of 244,438, rejected adding fluoride to their public drinking water in the November 4, 2008, election referenda. This comes on top of the rejection of water fluoridation earlier this year by Quebec, a city that had been fluoridated for thirty years.

Meanwhile countries that have fluoridated at 1 part per million (the level proposed for Southampton) have been pulling back from that level, saying that it is too high. Canada and Ireland have both reduced the level where they fluoridate to 0.7 ppm, and Hong Kong now says 0.5 ppm is a safer level.

As Professor Paul Connett said: “Once again we have seen confirmed - from Maine to Nebraska - that when and where citizens are given free choice on this matter and they organize, the overwhelming majority of towns reject fluoridation. On November 4, in an historic presidential election year, 79% of communities with referenda voted to keep fluoride out of their water.

To put it another way, the only way governments can keep fluoridation going is to take away (e.g. Australia) or circumvent (e.g. UK) the right of citizens to choose what medicine they take. Such an approach sabotages both our human and democratic rights.”

John Spottiswoode, Chairperson of Hampshire Against Fluoridation said: “When across the world people are saying that fluoridation of water should be reduced or scrapped completely, why on earth are people in Southampton trying to force everyone to drink this toxic chemical? Where there is such strong scientific evidence of harm from fluoride it is incredible that any responsible person should seriously consider adding it to our water. It is unsafe and unethical.”

Notes for Editors:

1. The detailed statistics on the votes can be found at: http://fluoridealert.org/11-4-08.html