Water fluoridation: the truth they don't want you to know.

The government is preparing to introduce legislation intended to apply greater pressure to water companies to fluoridate the public water supply, supposedly to improve public health. In reality such legislation is merely a convenient excuse to dispose of a chemical that is highly toxic and dangerous, both to the environment and to human health. But this is the side of the debate that hasn't been discussed in the public arena, and will never be either, if the fluoridation lobby is allowed to dominate the argument.

A recent article in The Independent revealed that the government is again looking at fluoridation of the public water supply as a possible means of achieving nationwide improvements in dental hygiene.(1) To the casual observer, given the highly erroneous impression that the presence of fluoride in toothpaste is beneficial in the treatment of dental caries, such a measure may understandably appear desirable and worthy of public support. However, many water authorities across the country have long understood the risks associated with fluoridation, risks that the government and the various official organizations that support such a measure continually deny. Consequently these water companies resolutely oppose fluoridation and it is for this reason that the Minister for Health, Tessa Jowell, is proposing to give Health Authorities the power to compel water companies to fluoridate whether they wish to or not.

The proposed legislation, already working its way through the corridors of power in the form of a White Paper, does provide for a period of public consultation, but we have seen such public consultation before (the Conservative government's roads programme springs to mind), and it is possible that opportunities for public opposition to fluoridation will be merely cosmetic. With the prospect of enforced fluoridation becoming increasingly likely, it is important that as many people as possible understand the dangers fluoride presents to human health so that the fluoridation programme can be stopped before it is able to achieve any enduring harm. Here then are some uncomfortable facts, facts that the fluoridation lobby doesn't want you to know.

There are two forms of fluoride. One of these is calcium fluoride, which is a natural substance occurring in water at very low levels of 0.01-1 parts per million and a substance which the various organizations involved in promoting fluoridation constantly draw attention to when attempting to justify their case. The other form of fluoride is sodium fluoride, which occurs alongside various related substances such as fluosilicic acid as an extremely dangerous …