The environmental organisation VOICE today called for an immediate cessation of the practice of adding fluoride to water supplies, abandonment of plans to extend fluoridation, comprehensive studies into the health effects of over 30 years of fluoridation on the Irish population and repeal of the 1960 Water Fluoridation Act. In a letter to the Minister of Health & Children, Brian Cowen, the organisation said that such action was imperative given the incontrovertible evidence that fluoridation is dangerous to human health and the environment.
Launching an information leaflet entitled "The Facts about Fluoridation" the organisation said that given this huge body of evidence, fluoridation is a serious infringement of citizens’ rights to bodily integrity. It is therefore a breach of human rights over the individual’s freedom to control his or her own bodily processes and standards of human health.
"It is high time that Irish people were told the real truth about fluoridation", said Iva Pocock, VOICE spokesperson. "This information leaflet is a first step towards debunking over 30 years of Government lies regarding fluoridation".
Key points made in the VOICE information leaflet include the following: fluoride is a cumulative poison which according to the US Environmental Protection Agency is more toxic than lead; it inhibits human enzymes and therefore has many detrimental effects on human organs; very low levels of fluoride can interfere with the male hormone testosterone; many allergic responses to fluoridated water have been established including skin irritations, mouth ulcers, headaches and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a disease suffered by one in five Irish adults; accumulated fluoride leads to increased osteoporosis which is increasingly prevalent in pre-menopausal Irish women; fluoridation is implicated in Alzheimers and reduced IQ levels in children.
Epidemiological studies from around the world have shown that:
Bone cancer among has been found to be up to seven times more common in fluoridated than in non-fluoridated areas of the USA.
Despite the evidence of the dangers of fluoridation, successive Irish Health Ministers have consistently failed in their duty to conduct surveys as respects the health of people residing in fluoridated areas, as required in the Water Fluoridation Act. Instead, for over 35 years the Irish Government has promoted water fluoridation to the extent that 73% of the population now live in fluoridated areas.
The extent of fluoridation makes Ireland unique in Europe. Most other European Countries ceased fluoridation in the 1970s with the exception of the UK and Spain who have 10% and 3% fluoridation respectively. Ireland is the only democracy in the world with compulsory nation-wide fluoridation and which has a stated Government policy of extending the national fluoridation programme.
Recent attempts to impose fluoridation in Northern Ireland failed when 25 out of 26 Councils rejected fluoridation. Walter Graham, spokesperson for Northern Ireland Councils Against Fluoridation, said that "Ireland must follow the lead of Northern Ireland by ending the insanity of fluoridation. It is time to heed the expert advice of scientists such as Dr. Susheela, senior fluoride consultant to the Indian Government, who in a presentation to the UK Health Minister in 1998 said that the "practice of adding fluoride to drinking water under the assumption that it will prevent Dental Caries is unscientific, outdated and unethical"’.
Adrian Hamilton, an Irish water quality expert who has spent the last ten years testing and developing water filter systems, said: "There is growing awareness of the dangers of fluoridation, but Ireland still remains a dinosaur with respects to this water "treatment". I would wholeheartedly concur with my colleagues in the German Association of Gas and Water Experts who decisively reject the artificial addition of fluorides to drinking water for the purpose of preventing dental caries".
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