Hull residents worried over fluoridation

Concerned residents in Hull have launched a petition against proposals to put fluoride in the city's drinking water.

Hull City Council are looking at fluoridation as a way of improving the area's dental health, which is one of the worst in the UK.

The British Dental Association have already leant their support to the idea of adding extra fluoride to our drinking water, as it's been proved to improve poor dental health, especially in children, in other UK cities. 

43% of five year olds in Hull suffer from tooth decay, compared to around 28% nationally. 

But campaigners opposing the idea say that even low levels of fluoride is dangerous and that recent studies have implicated fluoride in a number of ailments. 

An online petition has already raised hundreds of signatures against the notion of adding fluoride to our drinking water, and some comments on the page include questions as to why people should be "forced to drink a dangerous chemical?" and calls for a consultation meeting between Hull City Council and concerned residents. 

Patrick Holdsworth from East Yorkshire Against Fluoride says it amounts to forced mass medication and is not cost-effective for improving health:

"It's a forced medication. There's no control over how much of this medication you're consuming. There's no way of knowing how sensitive people, who are consuming it, are to fluoride. It's an incredibly inefficient way to get fluoride to the target groups.

"The amount that's actually being used for peoples households might be only 20 or 30 per cent of the actual water supply. Of that water, a lot of it won't be used for drinking. You've probably wasted around 99% which has, literally, gone down the drain."

He says the very people it's supposed to help, would actually be at most risk of fluoride related health problems:

"The conditions that make people more vulnerable to fluoride toxicity are more prevalant in poor communities. Nutrient deficiencies, kidney disease, diabetes, all these things are more common in poor communities, and all those things make you more susceptible.

"It has an effect on brain function, it disrupts hormone systems, it disrupts the thyroid function, reduces fertility, increases bladder cancers, burn fractures, alzheimer's, and some people will be susceptible to those things." 

In a statement, Julia Wheldon, Director of Public Health, says:

"We are working alongside Public Health England, our local dentists, schools and our community dental health providers to ensure that we make a difference to this important area of public health.

"An oral health plan will be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in March and this will consider fluoridation, alongside a number of other approaches including promoting good dental hygiene and the importance of a healthy diet low in sugar." 

A PHE report from March 2014 found that children in local authorities with water fluoridation schemes have less tooth decay than those in other authorities without such schemes.