Luis Feliu
Tweed and Byron shire councils will this week revisit the controversial issue of adding fluoride to council water supplies as the state government considers whether to step in and make fluoridation compulsory.
Lismore City Council last week during a marathon and heated debate overturned a previous decision not to flouridate its supplies, while Ballina Shire Council last month reaffirmed its decision to go ahead with it.
On Thursday this week, Byron Shire’s conservative deputy mayor Diane Woods is expected to put up an urgency motion for council to reconsider the issue after having previously rejected fluoridation.
On the same day, Tweed Shire Council will debate a motion by Greens’ Cr Katie Milne calling for a report on the costs of currently fluoridating the water supply and what savings could be made if it was discontinued and other options used to replace it, such as adding it to milk or bottled water.
The chemical has been added to water supplies by many councils in Australia since the 1950s as a means of improving dental health but anti-fluroide campaigners say it poses a danger to people and the environment.
Most of NSW’s population has access to fluoridated water.
Earlier this year anti-fluoride activist Al Oshlack failed in a his Land and Environment Court bid to stop the introduction of fluoridated water in the northern rivers by public water utility Rous Water, which services Lismore, Ballina, Byron Bay and the Richmond Valley.
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that anti-fluoridation action has been spreading from Queensland south into NSW.
The report said that since Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s Liberal-National Party government overturned the previous Labor government’s decision to make fluoridation of the water supply compulsory, 17 councils had voted to either stop adding fluoride or have stopped moves to build fluoridation dosing plants.
And the state opposition’s health spokesman, Dr Andrew McDonald, has called on the NSW government to make fluoridation compulsory rather than have individual councils each deciding on it or asking NSW Health to decide.
Tweed’s Cr Milne in her motion says other options that may be available for the community to receive fluoride should be investigated, including methods in Europe where fluoride is added to certain brands of milk and bottled water.
Byron Greens’ Cr Rose Wanchap said fluoride ‘is the only chemical added to public water for the purpose of medical treatment’ and that ‘informed consent is standard practice for all medication’.
Cr Wanchap told Echonetdaily that fluoridation allowed ‘governments to do to whole communities (forcing people to take a medicine irrespective of their content) what individual doctors cannot do to individual patients.
‘The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention 1999 and 2001 has now acknowledged that fluoride’s benefits are mainly topical not systemic so there is no need whatsoever to swallow fluoride to protect teeth,’ she said.
But the state’s chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, who addressed north coast councils recently on the benefits of fluoridation, says there is no scientific evidence to show fluoride had negative effects on health.
Dr Chant told those councils that by not fluoridating, it would deny residents ‘one of the most effective and socially equitable means of preventing tooth decay’.
Other health practitioners have spoken out for fluoridation, including local doctor and dental associations.
Echonetdaily has sought comment from Cr Woods on her motion, which will be available later today.
Not content with compulsory vaccination, now the bastards want compulsory poisoning of our water! I have access to pure mountain water, but if I was you mob downtown, I’d be making a lot of noise about this one! It seems our individual rights are slowly but surely being eroded…
It is unbelievable that we are stuck in the 1950s, in outdated research, which was even back then erroneous research. To have state and local councils decide whether our drinking water should be tampered with, defies belief in 2013. Why do these ‘advocates’ refuse to read the research from around the world? The concept is so outdated as Dr Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate (2000) stated, ‘Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology. It’s obsolete. I don’t think anybody, not a single dentist, would bring up this question in Sweden anymore.’ If it does not work by swallowing it , why do we have to swallow it?
What would Suzuki say? One has to ask as all good researchers ask, why is this being pushed at a time when we are genuinely grappling with Australians’ poor health record, when immune systems are already on high alert? An added known poison to the already broken mindbody system is going to have massive effects. And how typical is this that we avoid the real issue of overconsumption of sugar which will pacify the both addicted consumers and confectionary manufacturers? I forsee class actions. Why damage the whole population for the sake of those who want it for themselves. Of course these piles of chemicals must be gotten rid of somehow. Has anyone pushing it really thought this through holistically? Be afraid. One is reminded of ‘Give them cake’ only in present backward Australia it is ‘Give them fluoride!’ Times change. We no longer advocate thalidomide, smoking, asbestos. Look up the latest research.
Carmel Liertz, Performance and Health Coach, Author of the forthcoming book, ‘Creating Healthy Workplaces for Confident, Happy People’.
Not sure about your rights being eroded – but local kid’s teeth sure will be eroded if the council can’t get this sorted.
Mark… the majority of kids these days have such a bad diet that fluoride in the water is not going to save their teeth.
You should be more concerned about the junk food they eat. And so should council.
“But the state’s chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, who addressed north coast councils recently on the benefits of fluoridation, says there is no scientific evidence to show fluoride had negative effects on health.”
This does not mean there are no negative effects, even if it is true. It just means the evidence is not in, or has not been seen by this person. They said the same about tobacco, thalidomide, and god knows how many drugs that have been subsequently recognised as causing unforeseen problems. Since fluoride is well known to be an ingredient of weaponised nerve gas, it’s something I’d rather not have in my morning coffee or chai, thanks very much. And I cannot understand supposedly intelligent people advocating it. If you believe in it, use it on your teeth, but leave my water untainted, please!
With Lismore councillors arriving at a vote of 5/6 on this issue last week, it is clear that science is subjective.
I agree with the science of toxicologist, Professor Paul Connett, whilst others prefer the science of Dr Kerry Chant. Because Dr Chant is in a position of power in NSW, one science can be imposed upon an entire population although there is conflicting science. Most of Europe is fluoride free because of Connett’s version of science whilst the US prefers Chant’s preferred science.
I grew up in Melbourne on Colgate and fluoride and had filings in every tooth by age 15; my 3 Lismore raised teens have never had fluoride on their toothbrushes and have NO filings at all. That is all the science I need.
All I ask is that you swallow your science while I maintain the right to swallow mine.
Kids hate dentists and parents cant afford them, GIVE US FLOURIDE !!!!!
Yes we are stuck in the 1950’s and so are all our dentists!
YES fluoride is good for teeth. When it is applied to teeth.
But not when you drink it and it rushes past your teeth and into your stomach. A multi million dollar US National Institute of Health (NIH) found no relation between tooth decay and the amount of fluoride ingested by children.
Water fluoridation CANNOT prevent the oral health crisis that results from poor nutrition and lack of dental care. What parent would feel happy about feeding your new born high doses of fluoride (as this is their only food) A bottle fed baby gets 175 times more fluoride than a breast fed one.
Drinking Fluoride has been found to damage soft tissue. A recent Harvard study confirms this.
Read below.
Harvard Study Confirms Fluoride Reduces Children’s IQ
August 14 2012 | 165,803 views |
By Dr. Mercola
A recently published Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has concluded that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have “significantly lower” IQ scores than those who live in low fluoride areas.
In a 32-page report that can be downloaded free of charge from Environmental Health Perspectives1, the researchers said:
“A recent report from the U.S. National Research Council (NRC 20062) concluded that adverse effects of high fluoride concentrations in drinking water may be of concern and that additional research is warranted. Fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in laboratory animals, including effects on learning and memory…
To summarize the available literature, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies on increased fluoride exposure in drinking water and neurodevelopmental delays. We specifically targeted studies carried out in rural China that have not been widely disseminated, thus complementing the studies that have been included in previous reviews and risk assessment reports…
Findings from our meta-analyses of 27 studies published over 22 years suggest an inverse association between high fluoride exposure and children’s intelligence… The results suggest that fluoride may be a developmental neurotoxicant that affects brain development at exposures much below those that can cause toxicity in adults…
Serum-fluoride concentrations associated with high intakes from drinking-water may exceed 1 mg/L, or 50 Smol/L, thus more than 1000-times the levels of some other neurotoxicants that cause neurodevelopmental damage. Supporting the plausibility of our findings, rats exposed to 1 ppm (50 Smol/L) of water-fluoride for one year showed morphological alterations in the brain and increased levels of aluminum in brain tissue compared with controls…
In conclusion, our results support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children’s neurodevelopment.
Future research should formally evaluate dose-response relations based on individual-level measures of exposure over time, including more precise prenatal exposure assessment and more extensive standardized measures of neurobehavioral performance, in addition to improving assessment and control of potential confounders.”
Studies have Repeatedly Linked Fluoride to Reduced IQ and Brain Damage
There are so many scientific studies showing the direct, toxic effects of fluoride on your body, it’s truly remarkable that it’s NOT considered a scientific consensus by now. Despite the evidence against it, fluoride is still added to 70 percent of U.S. public drinking water supplies.
It amazes me that the medical (and dental) communities are so stubbornly resistant to connect the dots when it comes to the skyrocketing increase of cognitive decline in adults, and behavioral issues in children (ADD, ADHD, depression and learning disabilities of all kinds). In fact, there have been over 23 human studies and 100 animal studies linking fluoride to brain damage3. Fluoride can also increase manganese absorption, compounding problems since manganese in drinking water has also been linked to lower IQ in children.
– and to top it all off : even the fluoride advocates only claim a benefit of a measly 15% !!
would i take a medicine which only promises relief for every 7th person ? i doubt it ……….
Byron Shire Council will have one huge and expensive battle on their hands if they decide to impose compulsory fluoride ‘medication’, a poisonous waste-product, on the local population. Check the research..this stuff is linked with many negative health effects, and as long as there is any doubt about its safety, the Council has absolutely NO RIGHT to force residents to ingest it, water their gardens with it, and have it accumulate in people’s bodies. It would be cheaper to give everyone who wanted it, free fluoride toothpaste or pills.
I am so shocked and almost speechless but I am so mad at the amount of unintelligable ignorance that is still occuring in some people. Look at the facts! swollowing fluoride has no beneficial effects on our teeth what so ever! it is an extremely harmful toxic and poisonous chemical! it makes me sick that parents would agree and opt that they want this chemical put in their child’s stomach which then spread through the body and is absorbed by our bones which leads to weak, frail bone density when they get older. wake the fuck up! look at the bigger picture and use your brain! if you still have a brain after consuming fluoride your whole life? it is dumbing down the nation. I grew up on clean water my entire life and do not have a single filling, I moved to Melbourne a year and a half ago and for my first year there drinking the fluoridated water I started becoming lathargic, chronically fatigued and depressed! which I believe is exactly what the government wants, I now filter all of my drinking water and I am my usual happy self again. They have designed a way of causing people to frown upon anyone who doesn’t believe in the shit they put out they want you to socially discriminate against anyone who uses true knowledge based on facts. If you believe fluoride in our drinking water is a good thing then i’m sorry to say you are incrediby brain washed by the system. It is so simple to work out that by putting a toxic chemical in our water is harmful for all of us and will not lower your cost in dental care but you will probably end up forking out thousands on radiation treatments when your child develops cancer from the shit you buy them off the shelves from the supermarket. Do not ever think it’s ok to compromise with fluoride in water because you are feeding yourselves and your children sugary toxic food if you could even call it food. Read the ingredients on items you are purchasing from the supermarket and if you don’t understand them you probably shouldn’t buy it! whatever intelligence you have left use it for good and acknowledge the fact by supporting fluoride in our water you are being extremely selfish and inhumane, if you still believe in it so much use it on your own terms and don’t make the rest of us suffer by being so mislead. I don’t want to be medicated through my drinking water and neither should you.