UK - Hull Greens voice opposition to fluoride proposals

The Hull and East Riding Green Party are holding an anti-fluoridation meeting tonight.

Nationally, the Greens are opposed to water fluoridation. They say it amounts to mass medication, and there isn't enough evidence to demonstrate it is entirely safe.

Martin Deane from the Hull and East Riding Green Party says the benefits of fluoridation are minimal, and he believes there are more cost-effective ways to improve dental health:

"The one thing that everybody does know is that it's in nearly all our toothpaste, and that it's credited with strengthening teeth against decay. And okay, there's a certain amount of evidence that that's the case. But also conflicting evidence, that it doesn't do much good."

"If there are a number of children in families where the children have bad teeth, we can target them particularly. with education resources. If we want to give them fluoride, we can offer them vouchers for fluoride tablets to actually target the individual problem rather than mass medication."

"Fluoride's been classed by other scientists as a poison. Now, you can say that about a lot of things - a lot of things will kill you if you take too much of it. But even at the levels of one part per million that we're talking about, which doesn't sound like much, some people are more sensitive, and can have a reaction."