UK - Daily Echo

Daily Echo
AT THE HEART OF THE SOUTH
This fluoride saga goes on and on
AS the debate over the plans to add fluoride to Southampton's water supply gushes on, a new and perhaps more disturbing question has arisen. Are the people of the city and the surrounding region about to be used as guinea pigs in a study Into the side effects of adding the chemical to a new population?
The Department of Health has admitted to this paper that it plans to use the addition of fluoride to survey incidence of dental fluorosis, side effects of adding the chemical to water supplies that can in extreme cases cause mottling and pitting of teeth.
The news will not bring comfort to a population that is already extremely sceptical over the benefits and indeed even the need for the measures being taken in their name. So far this whole saga has done little to progress the cause of dental care, nor the relationship that medical authorities and In some cases politicians have with the public at large.
Promises to block the addition of fluoride and consultation campaigns that have badly misfired have brought to an all-time low the public's faith in those who are making decisions over what amounts to mass medication.
It is time these proposals were hatted and a full and transparent debate allowed to take place.