Ireland - Bandon school among first to ditch fluoride

BANDON Grammar School has become one of the first schools in the country to have access to fluoride free water.

The student council of the school officially launched their school’s water filtration system last week and ‘raised a glass’ to celebrate.

The initiative was initially tabled within the council in late 2015 over concerns relating to the state of the local water supplies in Bandon.

Students were particularly concerned about the continued practice of dosing the local water supplies with hexafluorosilicic acid (fluoride) to treat dental issues, which the student council said it objected to on the grounds of ‘choice’. The decision received the unanimous support of the school’s principal Ian Coombes and the school’s board of management.

Vice-chair of the council, Claire Roche told The Southern Star: ‘As representatives of the student council, we are delighted to announce that a filter has been installed in our school which will give all students at Bandon Grammar access to clean and safe drinking water.’

During presentations by representatives of the National Fluoride Free Towns Project and local environmental scientist Declan Waugh, students were shocked to hear that regulatory authorities have failed to consider the combined effect of fluoride exposure on the general population.

The exposure comes from various sources including water, food, tea, medicine, and toothpaste, and is likely to exceed safety thresholds in the case of a significant proportion of the population.

‘We intend to write to our three local West Cork TDs, requesting they jointly table a cross-party motion in Dail Eireann where the policy would hopefully be repealed by the country’s senior legislators,’ said Claire.