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Adding fluoride to the water is scandalous
9:45am Friday 9th May 2008
The fluoride saga continues, and it seems highly likely to do so, until the powers-that-be get their way and our drinking water is fluoridated.
But really, how will fluoride have any effect on children's teeth when most children drink very little water? Adding it to fizzy pop and other drinks children consume would seem a much better option.
But if the government really wants to improve children's teeth, then it should perhaps spend the money it aims to spend on fluoridation, on improving access to NHS dentists.
Little wonder so many children in Bolton have dental problems, when almost a third of them are not registered with a NHS dentist. For adults the figure increases to a half. And this after more than a decade of a Lab government. It is a scandal!
Scandalous too is the fact that the "fluoride" that they will add to our water - unless we reject the idea - is actually hexafluororsilicit acid, a waste product from the phosphate fertiliser industry, I am told, with a toxicity on a par with arsenic. This must be an extremely difficult waste product to dispose of, with all the health and safety regulations to comply with. Sticking it in the water supply is one way, I suppose!
Brian Derbyshire Ribchester Grove Bolton
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siftasam, Bury says...
10:19pm Fri 16 May 08
A direct answer to the original letter is that soft drink manufacturers would not be allowed to add fluoride to their drinks. Even if the law were to be changed in the UK to allow this, any drinks which were to be exported would be banned by the recipient countries and could cost the manufacturer greatly in lost eport orders and legal action.
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siftasam, Bury says...
10:08pm Fri 16 May 08
If I were to take an Aspirin tablet, it would say on the box 'Aspirin̷
7; BP'
236;, the 'BP' indicating that the tablets are certified as suitable for medical use. We will see 'Liquid Paraffin BP' but we will not see 'Esso Blue BP'. Is this "fluorideR
37;" the liquid paraffin of fluoride or the Esso Blue of fluoride? Has this fluoride been treated or certified in any way as being suitable for ingestion by humans?
What will be the effects upon caged birds such as budgies and parrots of drinking fluoridated tap water? They are only tiny and being asked to drink a dose of fluoride which is supposedly (but only supposedly, because they won't tell us) suitable for humans. Perhaps the little birds will get fluorosis of their beaks and bones and die horribly.
On the subject of birds, what about hens, especially battery hens which are given exclusively mains water to drink. Will the fluoride build up in the eggs, rendering them toxic to human infants?
What about our domestic cats and dogs? Will they be able to tolerate this fluoride in the tap water? Perhaps they will suffer damage to their health and will cost us big vets' bills.
What of dairy cows whose drinking troughs are filled from the tap? Will the fluoride build up in the milk rendering it toxic to human infants?
Who amongst us will receive the biggest dose of this fluoride? Perhaps the aged and housebound, who are in the habit of putting the kettle on every half hour for a cup of tea, will receive the largest dose. They will not worry about tooth decay. Most of them will have false teeth. What will be the possible effects of fluoride upon their ageing bones? What will be the effects of fluoride upon their brains?
What dose of fluoride are children likely to receive? We see that many kids drink very little tap water. Children are most often seen carrying a can of Coke or Fanta, or a bottle of Lucozade, and yet in areas where fluoride is added to the water, there appears to be an increased incidence of dental fluorosis amongst children.
What about schools? As far as I can gather, schools are not allowed to administer toxic waste to their pupils. Or the staff for that matter. Can we be given an assurance that all schools will be fitted with reverse-osmosis filtering equipment in order to ensure a pure drinking water supply and eliminate the possibility of litigation?
Where reverse-osmosis equipment is used, the filters when full be be quite toxic and it will not be legal to dispose of them to landfill. Who will pay to dispose of the filters in an environmentally friendly manner?
The history of the Industrial Revolution tells us the problems caused by industrial effluents polluting our water supplies, and so it is illegal now to pour toxic waste into our rivers. By putting this fluoride into our drinking water perhaps 99.9% of it will be flushed down our toilets, poured away with the bath water, emptied down the sink with the dish water, sent straight through our washing machines. What will be the effects of this on our rivers? What problems will this fluoride cause when it reaches the sea? Perhaps an environmental disaster is imminent? We don't know because no studies have been carried out. We are being asked to pay big money to have fluoride added to our water, perhaps just point one of a percent of which will be ingested by humans, dogs and cats, birds and cattle and the rest of which will go directly into polluting our rivers.
Why should it cost money to add fluoride to our water supplies? It costs industry a great amount of money and resources to treat this waste product and dispose of it in an environmentally safe manner. Why is industry not paying to dispose of the waste by pouring it into our drinking water? Why should we, the taxpayers, pay to dispose of toxic waste, by drinking̷
7; it?