Putting fluoride in the municipal water supply is said to prevent dental decay. However, it also causes dental problems in the form of ‘dental fluorosis’, and may well pose hazards deeper within the body too. I recently wrote a blog post about this, and included 50 reasons for opposing fluoridation from the advocacy group Fluoride Action Network.
Here in the UK water supplies are not fluoridated. However, the law in the UK permits strategic health authorities to compel water companies to add fluoride to the water supply. Recently, South Central Strategic Health Authority made a decision to fluoridate the water of about 200,000 people in the region of Southampton (on England’s south coast). A resident made a legal challenge to this, but the judge ruled in favour of the strategic health authority. You can read about this story here.
Some would argue that consumers should have some say in what is in the water piped into their homes. Well, apparently, laws in both the UK and US permit forced medication on the people. One could argue that individuals who don’t want to drink fluoridated water should just look elsewhere. However, it does seem somewhat unfair that those who likely pay for their water either indirectly (in the form of taxes) or directly (to water companies) should have to go to the trouble and expense of filtering their water filtered or sourcing an alternative supply (e.g. bottled water).
Plus, there are important political and ethical considerations here. Increasingly, it seems as though some governments are taking to remove the people from the decision-making process regarding fluoridation of water supplies. Governments are essentially saying ‘we know what is best for you and your views will be ignored.’ This is not how a true democracy works, surely?
In the video below you can watch Ralph Nader, lawyer and long-time consumer protector talk about some of the ethical and political issues that forced water fluoridation raises. Should you feel strongly about this issue, then please consider writing to your local political representative.
Apart from teas & coffees, how much tap water gets drunk? The vast majority is used for washing & flushing toilets.
Why not fluoridate sugary foods & drinks, and foods that stick to teeth causing tartar e.g. crisps & anything made from flour?
P.S. The above embedded YouTube video is too big.
Well said Nigel, viewed in that light water fluoridation does look look to be a highly inefficient way of going about things!
This is a huge problem in my view and the ordinary person can’t do much beyond expressing their concern to their local political representative. I have been living in Ireland for the last 12 years and have used fluoridated tap water although I have serious doubts about its safety. My daughter, who is 7 has dental fluorosis on her front teeth that are growing now. The white stains on her teeth point to large consumption of fluoride when they were forming, in her toddler years, probably due to formula being made with tap water. Fluoride doesn’t affect only teeth but other bones in the body and just because the damage is not visible it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Is the local council going to compensate anybody for ‘cosmetic’ damage to their teeth? I think not. Are people informed about possible dangers? No. Now that in the states they are reducing the upper acceptable limit of fluoride in tap water here they say that the concentration in Irish tap water is in line with the European regulations. Nothing to worry about then.
The campaigners against water fluoridation must be all paranoid crazy people.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~fluoridefree/home.htm
I am allergic to fluoride. This was discovered when I was teenager (nearly 30 years ago) when I was given extra fluoride paste to help with my teeth.
I brush my teeth with bicarbonate soda.
Now I have to move further from that measure and order water filtering system for the house in which I live to avoid as much as possible contact with fluoride.
I can’t understand why they can not leave us alone to make our own decisions.
Dental care is very rarely payed by NHS, so it does not cost government almost anything really. We as consumers pay for our own dental care.
If they want to police it, then it is better to police what is sold in shops and invest into education of people.
I find it amazing that the UK is starting with fluoride now. I was under the impression that many countries in Europe had it at one time and stopped it because it wasn’t effective nor healthy. In the US, fluoridation is everywhere. Things are so crazy they actually promote bottled water for babies containg fluoride. I recently put a reverse osmosis filter in the kitchen sink so we can have healthy drinking water. However this strips the water of minerals as well. We still have to bathe in it. When we buy toothpaste, there is a label on the product advising that fluoride is the active drug in it. It is actually a drug label! I never thought before how this is really a drug they a indiscriminately imposing on the population. The Romans had lead in their water but they didn’t know it was harmful.
considering that there is absolutely no evidence that fluoride in the water supply has any impact on teeth!! fluoride isn’t even in the composition of teeth so it makes no sense to say it helps teeth?? all fluoride does is make your teeth brittle and what does it do to your bones??? maybe we all need to take out a class action against our governments that allow things that hurt the population. or do what I do and buy a filter for your water that removes fluoride. Not like fluoride is an essential or necessary vitamin or mineral!!!
Do they have any anti-stupid pills they can give to those who make the decision that the rest of us just have to accept. and what ever happened to governments working to the will of the people after all they are public servants and they work FOR us don’t they? we certainly pay them enough!!
Try these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDEuPWWO8Nw&playnext=1&list=PL9FFD4F43D15A7765
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlwMeC2Fzik&feature=related
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLfRW4MXnGk&feature=related
If you click on the first they will play in sequence anyway.
They are long, but there is nothing quite like looking at the history of vested interests!
i hope that the UK fights this tooth & nail; if you don’t, your people will never be the same.
(Atlanta GA USA)
We’re facing an epidemic of hypothyroidism (although not many people know this yet – there’s a great video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOb2POQGE6g that illustrates the issues surrounding the TSH test which is unfortunately the gold standard for diagnosing and treating hypothyroidism.)
Fluoride apparently used to be used to knock out people’s thyroids when they went overactive. Could one reason for the increasing incidence of hypothyroidism be all the fluoride that we ingest? And they want to risk causing even more hypothyroidism by adding it to our water?
That brand of toothpaste/mouth wash retarDex which claimed it never used anything nasty has now quietly added fluoride to its products. The mouth wash does not list a ph value anymore.
When I asked why this has been done they stated that dentists were demanding it be included in ingredients as they would not stock it unless it had fluoride in it.
This is strange as the people who used it, bought it because it did not contain fluoride and my dentist recommended it because it was free of the nasties. Fortunately there are many more fluoride free toothpastes available and the best thing they are about 1/3rd the cost of this one.
excuse me ,but fluoride in your water is eugenics,simple as that.FLUORIDE IN YOUR WATER LEADS TO BONE CANCERS ,,INFACT JUST LOOK UP THE LIST OF WHAT HARM IT DOES,,,,,IT HAS NO BUISNESS BEING IN YOUR WATER,,,THEY ARE FORCING POISON CHEMICALS ON YOU. FACT.
Once you put fluoride in the water, it is expensive + difficult to remove. There are many more reasons for not putting it in than the benefits to teeth. Indeed, I understand that the US will be putting a skull and cross bones insignia onto toothpaste warning people not to swallow it! People can brush teeth with fluoride toothpaste if they wish, so enforced fluoridation is destructive and anti-democratic. How many more mistakes has man got to make? There is a sea the size of France in the Pacific that is full of plastic, which gathers there. Plastic cannot be broken down at all; it just breaks into smaller pieces. This is killing wildlife wholesale. This is an environmental abomination…when is man going to wake up to the fact that the abuse of the planet cannot go on without terrible consequences?
Some people cannot afford to buy “extras” like bottled water. They are stuck with nasty tap water. Also, some might not be smart enough to avoid tap water, they drink it and make their kids drink it too. So yes it is a problem, for people living in or near poverty who already have enough problems.
I also am becoming more aware of things like the New World Order and all that, and when you start thinking about it, suddenly a lot of stupid things that go on or are allowed to happen start to make horrible “sense”.
I am in the US. I’ll be 40 in a few months. I don’t have a single cavity and my teeth are naturally white. I brush once a day, drink coffee, smoke occasionally and don’t eat salad, ever. Neither of my parents had my kind of teeth…. We’re doing SOMETHING right over here. I’ll keep the fluoride, thanks!
Fluoride is actually a poison and it’s part of the New World Order’s plan to depopulate the world by 2050. They are purposely trying to kill us. Do your research. Wake up!