Here is some of our press release from our meeting which was a very useful and inspiring evening:HAMPSHIRE ANTI-FLOURIDATION CAMPAIGNERS COME TO STROUD
Health bosses voted in February to add fluoride to tap water in Southampton despite the County Council and 72% of 10,000 respondents in a public consultation opposing the plan. The move concerns Safe Water Campaign for Gloucestershire members who see it as a step closer to fluoridation locally. Caroline Place and Anna Peckham from Hampshire Against Fluoridation (i) travelled up on Wednesday 22nd April to share their campaign with Gloucestershire activists.
Cllr Philip Booth, Secretary of the Safe Water Campaign, which has over 1,500 Gloucestershire supporters and meets each month in Stroud, said: "The Hampshire campaign was hugely successful in getting the message across, but the health authority has refused to listen to the scientific evidence. They have also ignored the will of the people: 72% didn't want it and yet they still are going ahead. It is deeply unethical and sadly will lead to attempts to introduce fluoridation in other parts of the country. We learnt lots from these two Hampshire campaigners about how we can build a campaign to ensure water fluoridation does not happen here."
The Hampshire decision is the first time a health trust in England has been allowed to introduce fluoridation under the new law that this Government has brought in. NHS Bristol have announced last month that they are now considering the fluoridation of Bristol’s drinking water.
Philip Booth added: "When Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas raised concerns about the fluoridation scheme with the European Commission last year, it admitted that the potential risks from water fluoridation are not yet fully understood. Is it really wise to expose people to a mass-medicating process that has never been risk-assessed? Fluoride, or fluorosilicic acid, is an untested hazardous waste, and to add it to drinking water to supposedly prevent tooth decay is disproportionate and cannot be justified. Water fluoridation has simply not been proven to be effective for teeth, and some studies have even indicated links between fluoridation and serious ill health effects, including thyroid problems, skeletal fluorosis, bone cancers and mental problems.A recent Freedom of Information request (ii) by the Green party revealed that 76% of Southampton's NHS dentists are not taking new patients. And the controversial Southampton decision came on the very day that new dentistry data was released, which showed that less than half of adults are using NHS dentists and the proportion of children accessing NHS dentistry in Southampton has fallen by 2.4% over the past two years (iii).
Philip Booth added: "Trying to fix NHS dentistry problems by unethical and potentially illegal mass medication is simply wrong. Southampton needs to fix its access to dentistry. Having less than a quarter of its dental practices taking on new patients means that many poorer people are forced to go without dental care. The new statistics have also shown the proportion of children accessing NHS dental care is falling. We need a proper dental health strategy founded on education, good diet and access to free dental health care. In place of mass fluoridation, the UK Government could be using targeted schemes such as providing free toothpaste for poor families - resorting to a technofix that won't solve the problem but will breach everyone's universally-acknowledged human right not to be medicated without their consent is just plain wrong."Dr. Peter Mansfield, a physician from the UK and an advisory board member of the York review said: "No physician in his right senses would prescribe for a person he has never met, whose medical history he does not know, a substance which is intended to create bodily change, with the advice: 'Take as much as you like, but you will take it for the rest of your life because some children suffer from tooth decay. ' It is a preposterous notion."
Notes:
(i) See: http://hampshireagainstfluoridation.blogspot.com/
(ii) FOI response to the Green Party dated 3rd Feb 2009 showed that of Southampton PCT's 25 NHS dental practices only 6 were accepting new patients in December 2008.
(iii) See: here.
Photos: from Wednesday Rob Mehta (Safe Water Campaign chair) with our visitors Caroline Place and Anna Peckham plus in the group photo:
Back row left to right - Anna Appelmelk, Tony Burton, Philip Booth, Bernard Seward
Front row left to right - Anna Peckham, Lynne Edmunds, Caroline Place, Louise McLellan
