Ballina Shire Council has rejected a push to have a community poll on fluoride.
Councillor Jeff Johnson was unsuccessful with a notice of motion at yesterday’s council meeting, with no other councillor supporting his idea.
‘I’m surprised that my fellow Councillors think that this issue will just go away’, Cr Johnson said afterwards.
‘The decision to add fluoride to the water was made by a handful of councillors without any public consultation.’
‘While some Ballina Councillors think that a couple of ‘letters to the editor’ expressing different points of view constitutes public consultation I totally disagree.’
Cr Johnson questioned the move towards fluoridated water.
‘If adding fluoride to the water supply was such a ‘no brainer’, why does only 5 per cent of the world’s population drink fluoridated water? And half of this is in the United States. Why does 98 per cent of Europe choose not to add fluoride?
Ballina Shire Councillor and Rous Water delegate Sue Meehan labelled those who oppose adding fluoride to our water as believing in ‘extreme green pseudo science’. I find those comments offensive and it shows a total disregard for the diversity of opinion that exists in our community, said Mr Johnson.
Just because you don’t agree with someone, doesn’t mean you insult them and dismiss their views, said Mr Johnson.
‘I’m sure if a survey were conducted with all the schools in the northern rivers there would be vast differences in the rates of tooth decay both between schools and between individuals in those schools. What does that tell you?
‘For me, it tells me that fluoride isn’t the answer. It tells me that diet and behaviour are much greater causal factors than drinking a few glasses of fluoridated water each day.
‘Topically applied fluoride works, adding it to the water provides minimal benefit.
Cr Johnson said if the council believed that dental hygiene was an important issue, ‘then I believe the $100,000 per year would be better spent on an educational program in conjunction with local infant and primary schools.
Twitter accounts closed
Meanwhile, members of the Fluoride Free Northern Rivers group have rejected suggestions they were behind threatening Twitter posts aimed at Lismore mayor Jenny Dowell.
Social media giant Twitter closed the accounts of some users after they made threatening posts towards the mayor.
‘Last night someone posted ‘someone should end Jenny Dowell’ and then in another post said ‘I’ll offer 200 hundred dollars’ and I took that as a threat,’ Cr Dowell said of the first incident.
The comments were reported to Twitter by the mayor and the account was closed by Twitter.
However, more posts followed.
‘Another contributor posted another 15 posts saying ‘don’t think you can just block, I will bombard you with Facebook and Twitter accounts and continue the attack on you about fluoride, you’re not safe’, things like that,’ she said.
Twitter closed that account as well.
Violence and threats of violence, should not be allowed.
But who are the victims here, are people trying to act in self-defence?
The Mayor and Council of Lismore are threatening to violate the bodily integrity of residents, by the addition of an accumulative toxin to the water, food and beverages for the rest of everybody’s lifetime.
Does the Council have a right to add extra fluoride/fluorine to your bloodstream?
Forced Fluoridation and threats of Forced Fluoridation, should not be allowed either.
Having come from a 1930’s generation that had no fluorine and incredibly bad teeth, this is one occasion where I agree with the Council decision. My teeth including all my generation of kids suffered terribly from constant holes as a growing child, even the disaster of having to have a full top plate from 22 years old, but all that disappeared when fluorine was introduced into Sydney’s water supply.
No one with any common sense would put poison in drinking water. Put it in junk food instead so we have a choice, only fair. You can put in in but you can’t take it out,that’s criminal.
I object to people being forced to drink unnaturally fluoridated water. I have bought a water filter jug, $150 plus $150/ year for filters. This is the cheapest and not greatly effective filter available.. I also pay water rates. Will Ballina Council reimburse me for my filter system? I will hand my receipt in to council and urge others to do the same.
But what about the tons of unnatural fluoride going into our river and ocean each year and onto our ‘organic Gardens”. Can we call them “organic” anymore??
The people providing this poison used to have to pay to send it to the tip!
$100,000 a year would easily pay for a dental hygiene expert to visit every school regularly and educate about dental health. This approach would empower youth and families.
Forced ingestion of fluoride gives a false sense of security, “now we can eat heaps of sugar and drink heaps of soft-drink and not brush our teeth!
Hervey Bay council in Qld asked for public opinion, and as a result the council stopped adding fluoride to the local water supply. People don’t want it. Governments want this S7 poison to be dumped in our bodies as dumping it on the ground would bring fines. What is added to the water is untreated waste from fertiliser factories, not medical grade fluoride (which we still should not swallow). Fluoride works externally and is not safe to ingest. Watch this: http://firewaterfilm.com/overview/