Fluoridation

At a time when retired people deserve to look forward to a fruitful, active life, it’s galling when ill health strikes through no fault of one′s own. People living in fluoridated areas of England are at greater risk of coming down with various complaints which arise because of fluoride′s disruptive effect on the metabolism and the immune system. Fluoride also bio-accumulates in the bones and in other calcifying tissues, such as the pineal gland. Many different types of ill-health are caused by fluoride and because all people are different, they are weakened by fluoride in different ways according to their individual susceptibilities.

Apologists for the practice of water fluoridation blithely state that there are other far worse contaminants in our environment which we should be more worried about. Agreed that we should worry about all contaminants and it’s an uphill struggle working with DEFR and industry to reduce the artificial emissions of substances such as dioxins, BPa, mercury, lead, etc. However, reducing the body burden of fluoride is not technically difficult in artificially fluoridated areas: all that needs to be done is for the water companies to stop putting it in the water.

In order to achieve this, HM Government must be made to acknowledge that water fluoridation as practised in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland is an illegal practice. The Medicines Directive 2001 (amended in 2004) and a European Court of Justice ruling in 2005 found that food and liquids intended to treat people are functional foods and are therefore medicines. Functional foods must be clinically tested and, if they are considered safe and efficacious, the manufacturer must apply for and acquire a product licence before placing the product on the market. It matters not that drinking water is supplied in bulk – it′s still a functional food and it′s still sold by water companies (the manufacturer) to customers (the householder).

The challenge for those people who want HM Government to stop medicating us compulsorily is to persuade the regulatory agency for medicines – MHRA – to stop sitting on the fence. How did we get to this stage where many of us meekly accept that successive governments (our servants) can make us (the masters in a democratic society) take compulsory medicine every day for the rest or our lives?

It′s unfortunate that even if water fluoridation as a practice were to be suspended, unwell people who live in naturally fluoridated areas in England would still have to take avoiding action since it would be prohibitively expensive for the water companies to remove fluoride from drinking water. In most areas of the UK, the background level of natural calcium fluoride is really very low (0.1 ppm) and this is not of concern, but in some ′isolated pockets′ such as Colchester, Hartlepool and Durham, drinking water contains calcium fluoride levels of between 0.5-2.0 ppm.

People who live in naturally and artificially fluoridated areas should be very careful about avoiding fluoridated food and liquids if they are in poor health. Abstention from fluoride often brings about a rapid improvement in health. Similarly, unwell people are advised not to swim or bathe in fluoridated water since fluoride is dermally absorbed. Fluoride crosses the placenta and expectant mothers, infants and toddlers should avoid fluoride as much as possible.

Joy Warren
BSc. (Hons) Env. Sci.
Co-ordinator, West Midlands Against Fluoridation
wmaf@live.co.uk

For more information on the topic as it applies to England, please go to:
http://www.npwa.org.uk
http://www.ukcaf.org
http://www.wmaf.org.uk (from Sept 2009). email wmaf@live.co.uk (accessible now)

The definitive web-site for worldwide water fluoridation issues is:
http://www.fluoridealert.org