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UK Against Fluoridation

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

UK - Fluoride: Just when you thought it was safe to drink the water...

A public health body is once again campaigning for councils to add fluoride to our drinking water. But the science in favour is not as clear-cut as it seems
Local councillors are being encouraged by government health officials to put fluoride in the water supply. Before doing so, they might remind themselves of the fate of Gordon Simpson. He was the mayor of Andover in the late Fifties when the Hampshire town tried to do just that. At the subsequent municipal elections, Mr Simpson and the rest of the council were swept from power by anti-fluoridation campaigners, led by the former mayor Olive Harvey. She was so appalled by the addition of fluoride to her water that she sank a borehole in the garden of her home in order to bypass the mains supply. Feelings were such that at the election count in the Guildhall there was a punch-up between candidates. Andover has been fluoride-free ever since.

Public health officials continue to produce reassuring data about the efficacy of fluoridation, but it remains just about the most politically poisonous issue there is.
Hampshire was again the testing ground for fluoridation under the last Labour government, when the now-defunct Strategic Health Authority tried to introduce a scheme in the Southampton area, in the face of fierce local objections. This time, the councils were opposed to the project and legal wrangling continues.
In the early Nineties, there was also a major battle over fluoridation in the North East, when health authorities, backed by 70 per cent of the local population, proposed a scheme that would have covered one million people. It was rejected by Northumbria Water – which feared being sued – and the courts.
And so, contrary to popular belief, there are relatively few places in England where fluoride is added to the water. It happens principally around Birmingham and in eastern England, and covers about six million people. *Another 500,000 people live in areas where fluoride occurs naturally in the water supply.....

*Calcium fluoride

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