From Doug Cross

UKCAF STRIKES AGAIN!

Blackpool's Executive Committee last night decided to 'defer' a decision on whether or not to supply school children in Blackpool with fluoridated 'Dental Milk'. They cited an unpublished study by Public Health England warning that children drinking this product had been found with 'slightly higher levels of fluoride'. But they still believed the extraordinary claim that their children had heard from Councillor Riding, that 'unfortunately children’s teeth in Blackpool are some of the worst in the country'.

In fact, we at UKCAF have been working away behind the scenes with Councillor Tony Williams, Leader of the Council's Conservatives, to ensure that the Labour-Dominated Committee would have to examine ALL of the evidence. Last night we forced the issue, threatening to report the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman if they did not. - and this is the result!

Not least of our arguments was that since milk is a food, it's a criminal offence to claim that it has any preventive effect on the disease of dental caries. And we gave the Committee proof that the official statistics on dental decay in Lancashire show that their kids actually have teeth that are no worse than those of kids in most of the rest of the County.

We don't know if they were surprised to hear that the kids in St Helens, just down the coast, have been given this bogus product for twenty years - and it hasn't made a blind bit of difference. The official dmft/DMFT data for both towns are virtually identical! Or perhaps they weren’t told that embarrassing little snippet?

This decision looks very much like face-saving - their dental public health 'experts' are still convinced that it's the answer to kids' bad teeth, even though the Cochrane Collaboration, the most reputable scientific assessment group around, declared that there was no reliable evidence that 'Dental Milk' actually works. But with reporter present to take notes of the meeting, I guess we'll never really know what evidence was really provided - other than our own detailed statement, of course.

In September last year UKCAF formally submitted a complaint to the Blackpool Trading Standards Officers that the promotion of an unlicensed medicinal product - 'Dental Milk' (or alternatively, a milk as a food) to the Council as having a medicinal property is an offence. Either way, it's not looking good for the fluoride fanatics!

The story is at

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/education/decision-on-fluoridated-milk-for-schoolchildren-deferred-1-6401292 - but don't believe everything you read in the Press!