UK - Take fluoride out of water until you can prove there’s no risk’

Take fluoride out of water until you can prove there’s no risk’
Published on 27/03/2007
‘Suspend fluoridation’: Until they have got the research it should be taken out, says campaigner Dianne Standen By Daniel Cattanach
A MARYPORT woman is calling for the Department of Health’s 30 year policy of adding artificial fluoride to the west Cumbrian water supply to be suspended until research into its effects is carried out.
Dianne Standen, of pressure group Cumbrians Against Fluoridation, fears it could be leading to untold damage to the health of thousands of west Cumbrians, who have been drinking the water since they were children in the late 1960s.
She said the added chemical is of a much higher concentration than that of natural fluoride, which is usually used in toothpaste to give healthy teeth, and is a by-product of fertiliser production, containing traces of arsenic.
Her calls come on the day that a graphic postcard campaign is launched outside the United Reformed Church on Cockermouth’s Main Street.
Today’s event, between 10am and 12noon, aims to highlight the public concern about the lack of research and also provide information on the risks of water fluoridation.
Mrs Standen, 55, of High Street, said: “They can’t say with confidence that it’s safe because they’ve got no research to back it.
“Until they have got the research it should be taken out.
“They never did any research before putting it into the water so they have no idea what the long term risks to health are. “This action would not be tolerated if it were a drugs company experimenting upon the public but people trust the Department of Health to act with their best interests in mind.”
She said people who get their water supply from Ennerdale and Crummock Water, including, those from Whitehaven to Ravenglass, Loweswater and parts of Aspatria, were having artificial fluoride added to it. She added that up to 50 per cent of the fluoride intake can remain in the human body for life.
Cumbrians Against Fluoridation, which has been campaigning on the issue for the past seven years, has printed 5,000 postcards, featuring an image of fluoride damaged teeth, which people can send to the Department of Health highlighting their concerns.
Mrs Standen said her two children had developed dental fluorosis, characterised by staining of the adult teeth when they come through in childhood, but she still could not get any answers from the Department of Health. A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “There have been fluoridation schemes in the UK since the mid-1950s, longer in the USA, where the beneficial effects of fluoridated water were first recognised. “No evidence of risks to overall health have been identified. Nevertheless, the Department of Health is committed to maintaining a research programme on fluoridation.

“The department commissioned The University of Newcastle’s School of Dental Sciences to undertake a study into the bioavailability (absorption) of fluoride in naturally and artificially fluoridated drinking water.
“This study, which was published in July 2004, concluded that: ‘There was no statistically significant difference [in absorption of fluoride] between artificially and naturally fluoridated water, or between soft and hard water’.
“We are considering further research and has convened an expert group to advise on how research might be conducted into dental fluorosis, a flecking or mottling of the teeth, which is sometimes associated with the fluoridation of water.”
DCattanach@cngroup.co.uk

The study referred to (below)was over a short period of time with fit young students and even one of them had such an unusual test result they ignored it.

"The Newcastle Bio-availability Study 7. In response to the MRC Report, the Department of Health commissioned a study by the University of Newcastle School of Dental Sciences entitled Bioavailability of fluoride in drinking water – a human experimental study (Maguire et al. 2004). 8. The study was carried out on 20 healthy adults aged between 20-35 years."