I love water. It is my favorite drink. It’s my 3 year old daughters favorite drink. As we all know, drinking water is good for our health – isn't it? But what if the water we are drinking contains a chemical is actually damaging our health and contributing to our excessively high rates of certain cancers, of neurological diseases, of IBS, of thyroid dysfunction and of cardiovascular disease? Is it possible that something our Government has been adding to our water since 1965 could be slowly poisoning us? And is it possible that our Government is turning a blind eye to all scientific evidence that points to this being an outdated and hugely harmful practice, for reasons that seem at best, illogical, and at worst, downright criminal? We’ve all been conditioned to accept the fluoridation of our water supply on the basis of a dental benefit for generations – WHY?

Since I decided to write about fluoride it seems like there are articles popping up all over the place! Roisin Ingle wrote about it in the Irish Times yesterday, there was an article in Hot Press the day before, and in The Sun yesterday as well. And what seems to be getting all these journalists attention is a girl called Aisling Fitzgibbon who has created an alter ego called The Girl Against Fluoride who is determined to raise awareness of the issues and later this year bring a court case against the Irish Government to try to halt water fluoridation. Aisling is bright, young, brave and not afraid to strip down to her pink undies on Grafton Street in December – hopefully she will succeed where many have failed!

As many of you will know, since 1965 our Government has followed a programme of adding a chemical called fluoride to our drinking water. What you might not know is that we are the only country in Europe to continue this practice. In Germany in 1975 the Government declared that water fluoridation ‘is foreign to nature, unnecessary, inefficient, irresponsible and harmful to the environment.’ Less than a year later, the Dutch rewrote their constitution to ensure that the practice never be allowed in their country again. In 1977 it was outlawed in Denmark, and in 1980 France declared it was ‘too dangerous’. More recently, in 1996, 25 out of 26 councils in the North of Ireland voted against fluoridation of their drinking water, and in the UK plans to extend their fluoridation scheme were shelved after evidence that it was medically harmful was presented to the Government. Currently, Ireland is the only democracy in the world to demand fluoridation of its citizens by law.

Cork-based environmental scientist Declan Waugh has compiled a lengthy report entitled Human toxicity, environmental impact and legal implications of water fluoridation, which he presented to the Irish Government this year. In his report, Waugh argues that ‘While the practice of fluoridation of drinking water was intended to have a beneficial effect on caries prevention and to reduce social inequalities in dental health, there is now unequivocal evidence to show that the practice is now contributing to adverse public health risks and environmental impacts.’ He goes on to detail those health risks, which are so many I cannot mention them all here except to say they range from neurological diseases, to cardiovascular diseases, to cancer. Waugh goes into detail regarding the fact that Ireland has horrendously high instances of most of the condition associated with long-term fluoride consumption. He also covers complete lack of risk assessment ‘One central and astonishing fact that has been documented repeatedly by every assessment to date is that the products used for water fluoridation have never been tested for safety on humans nor the environment. This is both illogical and unlawful’. And most worryingly, he examines the danger it presents to bottle-fed babies.

Amazingly, not only is fluoride harmful but it does not seem to protect teeth in the ways that are claimed. In 2010, the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) declared they were to unable demonstrate the benefit of fluoridation of drinking water for dental health. So once again we ask why are our Government continuing to enforce this?

I simply cannot understand why, when there is so much concern nationally and internationally, our Government is refusing to hold an proper enquiry into this issue. A month ago Senator David Norris and Senator Fergal Quinn brought a motion to have a review of Water Fluoridation in Ireland before the Senate. Senator Norris noted that in his 25 years of being a public representative he had never ‘on any subject received so much correspondence from members of the public who were opposed to this policy’. But despite all this public concern, the debate in the Senate lasted only 1 hour without any independent scientific evidence being presented and at the end it was concluded that a review was not advisable as it ‘would only act to undermine public confidence in the Health Authority who are ultimately responsible for the implementation and promotion of water fluoridation in Ireland.’

So, let’s see where that leaves us. Consuming fluoride has been shown in many studies to be damaging to our health. It does not seem to make any positive difference to our teeth. We have never asked to have this medication added to our water, it is being done without our consent. It is not being reviewed. Safety checks are not being carried out. The debate is being squashed.

What can we do?

To protect yourself and your family:
Ask your local council if they are adding fluoride to your water. If they are, get a good water filter that will remove fluoride.
Don’t use mains water to make up baby’s bottles – when I take my little boy up to his childminder I also take a container of well water.

Let’s try to make a change! Support The Girl Against Flouride in any way you can, financially if possible. Join her on FaceBook. Read up on and discuss the subject to help raise awareness. Complain in writing to your local public representatives – the more the issue is seen to cause concern to us the public the more likely it is something will be done!

For more information look up the following websites:

http://www.fluoridealert.org
http://www.thegirlagainstfluoride.com
http://enviro.ie