From National Pure Water Association

From National Pure Water Association - 020 8220 9168

On Tuesday 4 February 2008 Health Secretary, Alan Johnson is expected to call for fluoride (fluorosilicic acid) to be added to all water supplies across England and Wales affecting some 50 million UK people.
A spokesman for National Pure Water Association said:

"By presenting fluoridation as a means of preventing tooth decay Health Secretary Alan Johnson confirms the practice is medication. Fluoridation is carried out by water companies in violation of their customers' human right to refuse consent to any medical intervention. Section 58 of the Water Act 2003 is therefore bad law as it conflicts with other UK, and EU law.

The NHS-funded York Review (2000) was unable find any high quality research to support claims of efficacy or safety for the practice, which began in 1945. York rejected BASCD surveys as they do not take any confounding factors into account.

West Midlands spends far more on dental health per head of population when compared with Manchester. In Wolverhampton, when fluoridation rose from 32% to 100% in 1997, in the five years to 2002 expenditure on dental health more than doubled and the number of preventative procedures, which could include fissure sealants on back teeth, increased by 50%. Over the same period spending on dental health in Manchester and Lancashire was cut. Clearly, it is targeted expenditure that reduces dental health inequalities, fluoridation is literally money down the drain."

Past consultations on fluoridation have involved an opinion poll of a fraction of 1% of the target community who were asked a leading question - 'Do you think fluoride should be added to water if it can reduce tooth decay?' Even if a community rejects fluoridation, Statutory Instrument No. 921 2005 allows a Strategic Health Authority to ignore this by giving greater weight to views it considers more cogent - ones that favour fluoridation."

Notes

1 "Medicinal product: Any substance or combination of substances presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease in human beings" [our emphasis]. Directive 2004/27/EC on medicinal products for human use.

2 Dental health expenditure comment based upon a review of Dental Practice Board Data by Chris Holdcroft in attached documents - Other Side of the Coin (page 16) and Wolverhampton Summary.

3 Opinion poll question - "Do you think fluoride should be added to water if it can reduce tooth decay?" Source - British Fluoridation Society website.

4 "Outcome of consultation 5. A Strategic Health Authority shall not proceed with any step regarding fluoridation arrangements that falls within section 89(2) of the Act unless, having regard to the extent of support for the proposal and the cogency of the arguments advanced, the Authority are satisfied that the health arguments in favour of proceeding with the proposal outweigh all arguments against proceeding."
Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 921 The Water Fluoridation (Consultation) (England) Regulations 2005.

5 Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine
Chapter II - Consent
Article 5 - General rule
- An intervention in the health field may only be carried out after the person concerned has given free and informed consent to it.
- This person shall beforehand be given appropriate information as to the purpose and nature of the intervention as well as on its consequences and risks.
- The person concerned may freely withdraw consent at any time.