.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

UK Against Fluoridation

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

I can't see this as I am in the UK - Bonkers.

16 hours ago - Customers of the Greater Johnstown Water Authority will soon no longer have fluorideon tap.



451: Unavailable due to legal reasons

We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact news@dailyamerican.com or call 814-444-5900.

1 Comments:

  • Customers of the Greater Johnstown Water Authority will soon no longer have fluoride on tap.

    Notices were recently mailed to area residents alerting them that fluoridation will be discontinued after Nov. 5. It is the result of a vote by members of the Greater Johnstown Water Authority board in the summer of 2017.

    “My recollection was that there was some financial investment (to continue fluoridation),” water authority Assistant Manager Tom Brown said. “There were also concerns related to just purchasing the chemicals and handling the chemicals.

    “I don’t think there was any one single reason why they did it.”

    Fluoride has been added to Johnstown’s water system for decades. Proponents of this, such as the American Dental Association, call the practice safe and effective in protecting teeth.

    “Simply by drinking water, Americans can benefit from fluoride’s cavity protection whether they are at home, work or school,” the association’s website states.

    Critics, however, cite an array of scientific studies that raise questions about the downside of fluoridation. Recently the peer-reviewed scientific journal Environment International linked fluoride exposure and iodine deficiency to increasing the risk of thyroid disease, and the Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry notes that most formula-fed infants in fluoridated areas will consume enough fluoride to develop dental fluorosis.

    Approximately 50 area residents attended a public hearing at the Greater Johnstown Water Authority facility in Kernville in May of 2017 to speak their mind about the practice.

    “We had a lot of people very happy about it,” Brown said, estimating that 75 percent of calls received after vote were in favor.

    “We’re just giving the choice back to the consumer.”

    Though the board decision was made more than a year ago, the authority was not allowed to remove fluoride from the system until the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection gave approval.

    “The decision to use (or not use) fluoride in water is a public water system’s decision; it must apply for a permit modification or amendment from DEP,” Lauren Fraley, a community relations coordinator for DEP, wrote in an email to Our Town.

    “DEP’s role is to ensure that these systems are operating in accordance with DEP regulations to provide clean, safe drinking water. DEP approved the Greater Johnstown Water Authority’s application on July 27. As a condition of its permit —and accordance with the attached DEP policy — the system must issue a public notice to consumers and medical professionals prior to its discontinuation of fluoride.”

    Removing fluoride from the water authority’s supply will impact residents of Johnstown, Brownstown, Dale, Ferndale, Lorain, Middle Taylor Township, Stonycreek Township, Westmont, East Conemaugh, Conemaugh Township, Mineral Point, Franklin, Lower Yoder Township, Southmont, Upper Yoder Township and West Taylor Township, as well as Conemaugh Township in Somerset County.

Medical News Today

Why do we have fluoride in our water?
 ByChristian Nordqvist Reviewed by Karen Cross, FNP, MSN

Risks Uses Side Effects Benefits Facts Controversy

Fluoride is found naturally in soil, water, and foods. It is also produced synthetically for use in drinking water, toothpaste, mouthwashes and various chemical products.
Water authorities add fluoride to the municipal water supply, because studies have shown that adding it in areas where fluoride levels in the water are low can reduce the prevalence of tooth decay in the local population.

Tooth decay is one of the most common health problems affecting children. Many people worldwide cannot afford the cost of regular dental checks, so adding fluoride can offer savings and benefits to those who need them.

However, concerns have arisen regarding fluoride's effect on health, including problems with bones, teeth, and neurological development.........................

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

New Study Again Links Fluoride to ADHD in Children



ADHD is one of the most common issues with children these days. According to 2016 data from the CDC, approximately 2.4 million children ages 6-11 have ADHD in the US and that number tends to increase over time. Seeing as though it’s very hard to treat and affects so many kids, wouldn’t a better solution be to prevent it altogether?  
Ridding the world entirely of ADHD might be a bit of a stretch but learning what causes it and minimizing exposure is a much more reasonable solution. Some causes may be obvious, such as head injuries or genetics, but others may be less conspicuous such as exposure to the sodium fluoride found in most tap water. 
A new study from the University of Toronto is shedding light on the impact that water fluoridation may have on rates of childhood ADHD. According to the study, there is an association between the levels of fluoride found in pregnant mothers and “ADHD-like symptoms” in the Children once they become school-age, around 6-12 years old. 
“Our findings are consistent with a growing body of evidence suggesting that the growing fetal nervous system may be negatively affected by higher levels of fluoride exposure.” – Dr. Morteza Bashash, Study Author 
The study recruited researchers from some a diverse range of institutions, including the University of Toronto, the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Harvard School of Public Health. 
After controlling for a series of variable including birthweight, birth order, sex, maternal marital status, smoking history, age at delivery, education, and socioeconomic status, the team found that the parents who had higher exposure to fluoride still reported higher levels of ADHD in their children compared with other parents who did not have as much exposure. 
“Our findings show that children with elevated prenatal exposure to fluoride were more likely to show symptoms of ADHD as reported by parents. Prenatal fluoride exposure was more strongly associated with inattentive behaviours and cognitive problems, but not with hyperactivity.” 
More Studies Link Pre-Natal Fluoride Exposure to Neurological Ailments 
This is also not the first time that exposure to fluoride has been linked with ADHD. In 2015, a study from the Journal of Environmental Health concluded that “state prevalence of artificial water fluoridation in 1992 significantly positively predicted state prevalence of ADHD.” 
“Parents reported higher rates of medically-diagnosed ADHD in their children in states in which a greater proportion of people receive fluoridated water from public water supplies. The relationship between fluoride exposure and ADHD warrants future study.” – Ashley J. Malin, Study Author 
Another study from 2017 examined the rates of urinary fluoride of pregnant women in Mexico and found that the more fluoride they were exposed to, the lower the intelligence of their children, measured in IQ. 
“In this study, higher prenatal fluoride exposure, in the general range of exposures reported for other general population samples of pregnant women and nonpregnant adults, was associated with lower scores on tests of cognitive function in the offspring” – Morteza Bashash, Study Author 
Does it Make Sense to Continue Water Fluoridation for Entire Populations? 
The reasoning behind fluoridated water is that it helps maintain strong teeth. However, other health effects of fluoride are rarely taken into consideration by lawmakers who decide whether their water is fluoridated.  
If you think about it long enough, you may agree that inserting chemicals directly into the drinking water is truly an act of forcibly medicating the public. Not only is it expensive to filter all your tap water for fluoride, but the most vulnerable to fluoride exposure are pre-natal babies and young children who don’t even have teeth. Does it really make sense to forcibly medicate babies for body parts that don’t even exist yet, with chemicals that researchers are finding increasingly harmful?
Maybe not, but that’s the system we have in place today. 

Doctors urge Queensland to help defeat anti-fluoride 'conspiracy theorists'

The Australian Medical Association says the Queensland government needs to strike a new deal with regional councils to encourage them to put fluoride back in the water supply.
About 800,000 people in regional Queensland do not have fluoride added to their drinking water. That represents more than half the population outside of the urban south-east, and 40% of the state’s Indigenous population, who have the highest rates of tooth decay.

The AMA Queensland president, Dilip Dhupelia, said the state needed to end the “piecemeal approach” that gave local councils responsibility for deciding whether to add fluoride, which was widely backed by public health experts as a safe and effective way to prevent dental problems.
Dhupelia said the situation had led to an impasse in some areas, where councils were willing to consider fluoridation but wanted the state, which owns the water supply, to cover the cost.
“There is ample evidence to prove that fluoridation is an affordable and efficient public health prevention method that all Queenslanders deserve,” he said...........

Monday, October 29, 2018

From Ann

Mail on Sunday 28.10.18 “COMMON ANTIBIOTIC DOCTORS SAY COULD GIVE YOU ORGAN FAILURE”
Doctors from European Medicines Agency (EMA) warn that some antibiotics, prescribed to more than a million Britons for chest & urinary infections, are causing devastating permanent side effects, including kidney failure, & damage to the brain’s nerves. They say the drugs including ciprofloxacin & levofloxacine are dished out far too readily, when they should be used as a last resort.  Evidence shows side effects occur more often than previously thought & can be life-changing.  Common complications include inflamed or ruptured tendons, nerve damage in the brain (leading to depression, anxiety & insomnia) digestive problems, fatigue & damage to major organs & joints.  These drugs are fluoroquinolones & quinolone antibiotics.  They can penetrate tissues throughout the body, including the nervous & musculoskeletal system. “These antibiotics were originally developed to treat major life-threatening infections including sepsis, E.coli & anthrax” explains Dr Neal Millar, orthopaedic surgeon based at University of Glasgow’s Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation.  Latest figures estimate that last year over 675,000 of these drugs were prescribed in UK by GPs with a similar number administered in hospitals.  Adverse reactions on tendons for example have been known about since the early 2000s.  Dr Millar speaks to an ever-growing number of patients who have been “floxed” as it’s called in the support group community & suffered tendonitis where the cells break down. Miriam Knight co-founded “Quinolone Toxicity Support.”  

Record number of Gloucestershire children having rotten teeth removed before they're even 10



A record number of children in Gloucestershire are having rotten teeth removed under general anaesthetic.
Analysis of NHS figures shows that 300 children aged 10 and under had tooth extractions in 2016/17 - despite tooth decay being entirely preventable.

The figure is up from 225 children the previous year, and is more than double the 148 children in 2010/11, when modern records began.
In most cases, tooth decay is caused by having too much sugar in your diet and not brushing teeth or cleaning gums properly.
Children usually have rotten teeth removed under general anaesthetic because it would be too traumatic for them to have injections to numb the pain.
When they are unconscious, dentists will remove as many rotten teeth as possible in one go.

If a tooth shows even the slightest sign of decay, it will most likely be removed in order to prevent the child from having to undergo further general anaesthetic at a later stage.
The data does not make it clear whether the children are having adult or milk teeth removed.

Young children in Gloucestershire are actually less likely to need rotten teeth taken out as children in other parts of the country.

How does your district fare?
In Gloucestershire as a whole in 2016/17, 300 children had tooth extractions - a rate of one in every 260.

This is how the figures compare in each area of the county.

Cheltenham - 46 children, one in 313
Cotswold - 28 children, one in 336
Forest of Dean - 58 children, one in 166
Gloucester - 86 children, one in 219
Stroud - 48 children, one in 300
Tewkesbury - 34 children, one in 335
England overall - 31,666 children, one in 237
Across England, 31,666 kids under the age of 11 had general anaesthetic to remove their rotten teeth in 2016/17 - one in every 237 children.

In comparison, the 300 children having tooth removals in Gloucestershire works out as one for every 260 kids in the area.

Within our region, the Forest of Dean had the worst rate of tooth removal (one in every 166 children aged 10 and under), while the Cotswolds had the best (one in every 336).

Claire Stevens, consultant in paediatric dentistry and spokesperson for the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, said: “There are still unacceptably high levels of decay in some children, often in the most deprived areas. “Decay is the result of consumption of too much sugar, whether in food or drink, and the absence of effective oral hygiene. When sugar can be kept to mealtimes and children brush twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, decay can be prevented.

“We all tend to inherit habits and beliefs but sometimes the advice that gets passed down the generations is outdated. For instance, many parents are told baby teeth don’t matter - but they do.


WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING TO LOOK AFTER YOUR CHILD'S TEETH
“The parents I see whose children are having extractions want the best for their children and in most cases, once they have been given the right information on diet and oral hygiene and start taking their child to the dentist regularly, oral health in the family will improve.

“BSPD’s advice is to take your child to the dentist when their first teeth come through - dental check by one - and then as often as recommended by your dentist.

“A child undergoing extractions needs to be calm and still. Sadly, many of the children having multiple extractions are too young to be able to keep calm and still and a general anaesthetic in hospital is the only way they can be treated. It remains the kindest and safest way to treat young children requiring multiple extractions.”


Dr Max Davie, officer for health promotion for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said: “Tooth decay is a horrible condition which causes toothache, cavities to develop in the teeth and sometimes abscesses.

“To treat it, children often have to have their decayed tooth extracted and this is an expensive business, costing the NHS around £50m for those under the age of 19. The prospect of having an operation is often scary for children and the risks associated with them should not be underplayed.

“Prevention is most certainly simpler and less traumatic than cure and local authorities have an important role to play.

“They need to show they take children’s dental health seriously by prioritising oral health in Health and Wellbeing Strategies in areas where the oral health of children and young people is a significant problem.”

Facebook NZ Fluoride free

Image may contain: one or more people, text and close-up

Sunday, October 28, 2018

NSW - Tamworth Regional Council considers fluoride for village water supplies

Tamworth Regional Council recently received a letter from health minister Brad Hazzard which highlighted the funding available for local governments looking to fluoridate their water supplies.
The Calala water treatment plant which supplies residents in Tamworth, Moonbi and Kootingal adds fluoride to the water, as does the Manilla facility.
However, water supplies in Attunga, Barraba, Bendemeer and Nundle currently do not have fluoride dosing systems installed.
While Mr Hazzard’s letter to council stated the “NSW government continued to support the fluoridation of drinking water as a safe, effective and equitable way to help prevent tooth decay in the community”, council has been urged to hold off on adding fluoride to the village supplies.
“In order to install fluoride dosing systems at these water supplies and to comply with the NSW Code of Practice for Fluoridation, daily inspections would be required leading to significant operational cost increases,” water manager Dan Coe said in his report to council.
The current code of practice is under review by NSW Health with input from the water industry with the clause requiring daily inspections being reviewed.
The report suggests councillors vote in favour of noting the health minister’s correspondence and wait “for a revised version of the NSW Code of Practice for Fluoridation to be adopted prior to considering the fluoridation of water supplies currently not fluoridated”, including the village supplies.

Dentists and health experts hold meeting about the fluoridation of Calgary's drinking water

Dozens of concerned Calgarians gathered on Saturday afternoon for a discussion about the pros and cons of adding fluoride back into the city’s water system.
The city stopped the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water back in 2011 because the government stated that any advantage fluoridated water has would be negligible because of the widespread use of toothpaste and mouthwash.
However, opponents to the idea of taking fluoride out of drinking water say that it’s put many lower income Calgarians and children at risk of tooth decay.
Wendy Street-Wadey, a general dentist, said that they wanted to hold a public forum to help spread awareness about some of the benefits of fluoridation that have now been lost.
“We asked the people we thought who are experts in the medical field to talk about their area of specialty to read the literature and come to their expert conclusion as to whether community water fluoridation was safe and effective.”
She says that it’s important to have fluoride in water because many health organizations support the measure.
“Presently we do have naturally occurring fluoride in our water in Calgary, it fluctuates between 0.1 and 0.4 ppm,” Street-Wadey said. “We’re advocating to increase the fluoride levels in our water in Calgary to 0.7 ppm which has been shown to be the effective therapeutic level to prevent tooth decay. What we’re seeing in Calgary is an increase in dental decay over the past few years since they removed fluoride from the water so it’s important to have that in our water to help strengthen our teeth.”
Before the city halted the practice, fluoridation of drinking water cost an estimated $750,000 every year.

LETTER: Fluoride exposure link to reduced IQ among children

SIR – This month the findings of three important human epidemiological studies were published in peer reviewed scientific journals which have important and far reaching implications for this country. The first study published in the journal Environmental International by leading researchers in the United States, Canada and Mexico found that maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy, as measured by urinary fluoride concentrations, was significantly associated with attention deficient disorders in offspring. 
This study is consistent with previous findings published in 2015 in the journal Environmental Health, which found that exposure to fluoridated water was associated with increased prevalence of ADHD in the United States. Furthermore, this current study supports the previous findings by the same authors published in September of 2017 in ‘Environmental Health Perspectives,’ which found that that maternal exposure to fluoride during pregnancy among women residing in Mexico City was associated with reduced IQ in offspring. 
Earlier this year, a further study by Professor Strunecka and colleagues published in Surgical Neurology International highlighted that fluoride exposure may also be associated with autism spectrum disorders.
The second study published this month, also in ‘Environmental Health Perspectives,’ found that maternal fluoride exposure among pregnant women in Canada was comparable to that found in pregnant women in Mexico City, which was associated with lower IQ in offspring. This study also found that community water fluoridation was the major source of fluoride exposure for pregnant women living in Canada. 
Finally, the third study published this month, also from Canada, found that among adults living in Canada who had moderate to severe iodide deficiency and higher exposure to fluoride were at increased risk of hypothyroidism. It is well recognised that iodine deficiency is a major public health problem in Ireland along with hypothyroidism. 
However, unlike Canada, 80% of dwellings in the Republic of Ireland are provided with artificially-fluoridated drinking water, compared to approximately 30% in Canada. Moreover, per capita consumption of tea (which contains high levels of fluoride) is three- to four-fold higher in Ireland than Canada. 
Tea beverages in Ireland are also invariably made with fluoridated tap water, along with coffee or any other beverage than requires water. 
Available evidence would therefore suggest that fluoride intake in the Republic of Ireland significantly exceeds that of Canada. 
Furthermore, as Mexico has the lowest per capita consumption of tea in the world, it is also predictable that fluoride intake among women in Ireland exceeds that reported among pregnant women in Mexico City. 
The persuasive evidence from these well controlled studies by leading international epidemiologists and environmental toxicologists linking maternal fluoride intake in pregnancy to lower IQ and ADHD would imply that the dramatic increase in ADHD prevalence witnessed in Ireland in recent decades may be causally associated with water fluoridation as well as uncontrolled fluoride intake from other sources such as tea. 
Worthy of note: while the Republic of Ireland has never undertaken national surveys to assess the prevalence of ADHD in its infant, adolescent or adult population, it has been documented that among children with intellectual disabilities the prevalence of ADHD has been reported to be an astounding 55.9% in the Republic of Ireland. Among adults attending psychiatric outpatient clinics, 33.8% have been reported to meet the criteria for childhood onset ADHD.
Collectively, these findings are consistent with the growing body of evidence that fluoride is both neurotoxic and an endocrine disruptor, and that early life exposure as well as long term exposure among adults is contributing to the burden of childhood neurological disorders and other diseases associated with hypothyroidism, which are highly prevalent in the Republic of Ireland. Moreover, these findings also suggest that fluoride exposure is also contributing to reduced IQ among children in Ireland.

Declan Waugh,
Environmental Scientist,

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Daily Mail - Dr Max

Why folic acid can be BAD for the elderly
Twelve years after experts recommended the addition of folic acid (vitamin B9) to flour to help reduce the rates of spina bifida in unborn babies, the Government has agreed to a consultation on the issue.
The proposed plan is to add folic acid to all flour — except wholemeal — at the milling stage, so we have little option but to buy fortified bread. So what, you may ask? Surely, saving a child from disability is a price worth paying.
Unfortunately, the initiative may have a potentially catastrophic effect on older people, but I have yet to hear anyone voice concern.
For there is another vital B vitamin we must consider: B12 is essential for several physiological processes, especially the functioning of the nervous system. Along with folic acid, it is also vital for the production of blood cells.
B12 is found in fish, meat, poultry and dairy products, and is absorbed from the gut. However, as people age, their bodies becomes less efficient at absorbing it, and it's common for the elderly to be deficient.
The first sign is anaemia, but if left untreated, devastating damage to the nervous system can result. 
It's complicated but, put simply, mass supplementation of our diets with folic acid would benefit the elderly who have anaemia — but it would also mask a B12 deficiency.
While there's support for adding folic acid to flour to protect unborn babies, old people are, in effect, being discriminated against. It's a complex moral dilemma and we should at least be talking about it.

From Ann

“What Doctors Don’t Tell You” (WDDTY) November 2018.  “THE DENTAL REVOLUTION”  by Lynne McTaggart & Bryan Hubbard.
Dentists have hacked, drilled & pulled teeth, & during root canal treatment the nerve is removed & plugged up, leaving a dead tooth.
However, ozone is transforming medicine by killing infection & helping the body heal.  It’s also being discovered that ozone can be applied to teeth & gums with amazing results.  When early tooth decay is zapped with ozone, the decay-causing bacteria are immediately killed & when certain minerals are also applied to the tooth it can remineralize.
Ozone is made up of 3 molecules of oxygen.  Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is championing a device called “HealOzone” which sends ozone through a small suction cup over an exposed tooth cavity, to heal decay & help the tooth heal.   It takes just a few minutes & requires no anaesthetic, not even a drill. Some pioneering dentists are using ozone to treat infections in or near the roots, curing abscesses & eliminating the need for root canal treatment.  Ozone is revolutionizing periodontal treatment by being used to kill bacteria which causes advanced gum disease.  Ozone can kills the germs left in cavitations - holes in the bone left when a tooth is removed.  Professional dental associations aren’t thrilled with a simple cheap substance that threatens to make most of their work obsolete.  Imagine what would happen if teeth no longer needed to be drilled, filled or capped, or roots plugged.  If all the scraping under & around gums in descaling treatment was replaced by a shot of simple gas.   Most of dentists’ work would be unnecessary.  Small wonder that most dental associations decry it as unproven – despite recent studies showing its efficacy.  So dentists using ozone are doing so quietly.  One holistic dentist was branded as a quack for using ozone & other non-toxic treatments.  Mr. Evan Brand in Kentucky, developed heart palpitations.  It was found by Dr Stewart Nunnally, holistic dentist, that after the removal of wisdom teeth his jawbone was probably necrotic & needed cleaning out.  Dangerous infections were found in the sites the teeth were extracted from & these were cleaned with ozone.  His health problems disappeared as the pathogenic bacteria had been causing inflammation in his body & this was healed.
(My comment:  It may be worth getting a copy of Nov’s WDDTY as there are 6 pages on this subject.)
-
Ann  

Fluoridated water or pus-laden, antibiotic-laced milk? Nanny State of California’s new law limits kid’s choices on all restaurant menus

'Just like Hitler said, it’s for the “greater good.” The Orwellian State of California is not done filling your children with hazardous chemicals, now that kids cannot attend school without getting injected with 50 toxic vaccines before age 7, because now your family cannot go out to eat at a restaurant without your child being told by the government that two of the most health-damaging drinks are the only two choices they have on the menu. According to lawmakers there, it’s for the greater good, and parents are too stupid to manage their children’s health, so the government must step in and handle it. Here’s how. ..........



Well worth watching.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Daily Mail

A French father gave his two sons just Coca-Cola and cake so he could spend all the family's welfare money on booze. He was described as violent towards his wife and children.

Story image for fluoride from Twitchy
Twitchy

Drug Our Drinking Water with Lithium?

Discovery Institute-12 hours ago
Matthews blames the far Right's overreaction to fluoride in the 1950s for the failure of scientists to conduct studies by having a “state randomly add lithium to ...

No evidence that fluoride supplements taken during pregnancy prevent caries

Abstract

Data sources

Cochrane Oral Healths Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) Medline, Embase, LILACS BIREME Virtual Health Library CINAHL US National Institutes of Health Ongoing Trials Register (ClinicalTrials.gov) and the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform databases.

Study selection

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) including quasi-randomised and cluster-randomised trials of fluoride supplements (tablets, drops, lozenges or chewing gum) given to women during pregnancy with the aim of preventing caries in the primary teeth of their children were selected.

Data extraction and synthesis

Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed risk of bias using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. No data synthesis was possible.

Results

Only one RCT met the inclusion criteria. There was no statistical difference in decayed or filled primary tooth surfaces (dfs) or % of children with caries at three years or five years. Risk ratio (RR) at three years = 1.46, (95% CI; 0.75 to 2.85) and RR at five years = 0.84, (95% CI; 0.53 to 1.33). At five years the incidence of fluorosis was similar between the groups.

Conclusions

There is no evidence that fluoride supplements taken by women during pregnancy are effective in preventing dental caries in their offspring.

Australia - Fluoride on the agenda

Dentists in Eaton and Australind have praised an announcement from the Department of Health that fluoride will be added to the public water supply for the area in mid 2020.

According to the department, residents of Burekup, Brunswick Junction, Pelican Point, Picton and Roelands will also receive water fluoridation at this time where they are connected to the same Water Corporation operated public water supply scheme. Eaton Dental Centre dentist Dr Ramaprasad Natarajan said fluoridation was beneficial for children in developing healthy teeth.

“It will prevent more decay in their mouths so there will be less chance of developing cavities,” he said. “So their teeth become more acid resistant so that will be more helpful to the future generations. “When the tooth development is finished there is no reason to have the fluoride in the water there.”

Australind Dental Centre dentist Dr Timothy Crofts said there was a significant difference in dental hygiene between people in areas with fluoridation and those without. “There are studies which show a 30 to 50 per cent decrease in decay for children in these areas and that is significant,” he said.

“As a dentist we see that difference in people who grew up in Perth compared to those who didn’t grow up in Perth how different it is before and after fluoride.”

Dr Crofts said he was more concerned with the health benefits than any loss of clients. “At the end of the day our job is about making people healthy again and fluoride is a part of that job,” he said.

“Unfortunately we are in a profession where people make the wrong decisions about diet and brushing so I don’t think it is a concern for us.” 

However, Fluoride Free Bunbury coordinator John Vukovich said fluoride was damaging to not just people but also the environment. “It doesn’t just go into people - most of it goes into lawns and into the ground and that contaminates the ground water,” he said. 
“There has never been any scientific trial showing that fluoride does help against tooth decay but there is plenty of evidence that it does cause other issues including ADHD and mental health issues.”

Future community water fluoridation for Bunbury and Dalyellup is also being investigated as part of the overall strategy.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

How our drinking water could help prevent suicide




USA - Brooksville voters will be asked to settle fluoride question

BROOKSVILLE — Residents of the city of Brooksville will face an even longer ballot than other Hernando County voters for the upcoming general election.
In addition to the myriad of federal, state and local races as well has a long list of potential constitutional amendment questions, Brooksville residents will also be asked if they want to continue to receive fluoride in their water supply.
In recent days, those who support and those who oppose fluoridation have been busy reaching out to voters and inundating city officials with materials bolstering their arguments. Brooksville has also been featured in a recent national report by NBC News about the small vocal minority of fluoride opponents continuing to raise the issue across the nation.
Just a few years ago debates about adding the substance, which the country's top dental and medical organizations say curbs tooth decay, raged at city council meetings.
In July, at the request of Mayor Betty Erhard, a divided City Council voted to place the question on the ballot. Erhard said that from November 21, 2013, through May 17, 2018, the city has paid $18,942.36 to fluoridate its city water supply and that she thought citizens should at least have a chance to vote to say they want that.
In other places and at other times, anti-fluoride groups have argued that the science shows that fluoride at the levels recommended was more dangerous as a water additive than it was beneficial. The arguments including allegations that it causes declines in intelligence and causes cancer. Part of why the City Council agreed to put it to a vote of the people was to avoid a continuation of that debate at the council level.
Still the council members have been receiving plenty of materials from the anti-fluoride groups. Last week, they got a packet of more than 200 pages assembled for their attention by Cathy Justus, national spokeswoman against Fluoride Poisoning in Animals.
A few local dentists and a fluoride advocate and dentist from Pinellas County, Johnny Johnson, urged the council during citizen comment to keep the fluoride in the water for the sake of all Brooksville residents but especially those who did not have other access to fluoride or dental care.
In recent weeks, Johnson has taken to the airwaves on local radio and spoken at social service agencies, while the local representatives of the State Health Department have passed out flyers. Yard signs and groups of residents waving signs on street corners have been other methods to influence voters used by those who support keeping the mineral in the city's water supply.
Fluoride advocates have argued before the council and the Hernando County Commission when they briefly considered fluoridation several years ago, that prevention is a much more cost effective approach than treating dental problems after they appear.
The city has added fluoride to the water since the mid 1980s but stopped at some point. After a rousing debate in 2013, the council returned the fluoride to the water. Then in 2013, Brooksville won a Community Fluoridation Reaffirmation Award from the American Dental Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors for their decision to bring fluoride back.
Mainstream medical and dental organizations are so positive that fluoride at the recommended levels are critical to preventing tooth decay that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has heralded public water fluoridation as one of the top public health achievements of the century.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Scotland - Poorer children more likely to have tooth decay, figures show

Children in Scotland’s most deprived areas are more likely to have tooth decay than their more affluent peers, official statistics have shown.

The National Dental Health Inspection report surveyed more than 16,000 primary one (P1) pupils and found 86% of those in Scotland’s least deprived areas had no obvious signs of decayed, missing, or filled milk teeth.

This fell to 56% in the most deprived areas, with the 30% gap widening by three percentage points in 2017/18 compared to the previous year.

The mean number of decayed, missing or filled teeth was 0.45 for children in the most well-off areas but 1.92 in the poorest.

Despite the widening inequality, the oral health of Scotland’s children in general continues to improve with more than two thirds (71%) have no obvious signs of decay.

This has been rising since 38% in 1994 and has increased two percentage points since 2016/17.
NHS National Services Scotland
@NHSNSS
More than 70 percent of P1 children had no obvious decay experience in  their primary teeth in the school year 2017/18. This is a substantial  improvement since #ISD started recording this information in school year  2002/03 (45%) 🦷http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Dental-Care/Publications/2018-10-23/2018-10-23-NDIP-Summary.pdf …?

The average number of P1 children’s teeth with obvious decay experience was 1.14, down from 1.21 in 2016/17, having fallen continuously since 2.76 in 2003.
For the 29% of children with obvious decayed, missing or filled teeth, the average number of affected was 3.94, up marginally from 3.93 in 2016/17.

Across Scotland’s health boards the average number of teeth affected for P1s with decay ranged from 2.47 in Shetland to 4.59 in Dumfries and Galloway.
The number of teeth affected in an individual child varied from one to all 20 teeth.
A total of 16,814 pupils were included in the survey between November 2017 and June 2018.

The Liberal Democrats said the Scottish Government needed to take further action to improve children’s teeth. The party’s health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “While Scotland’s dental health has improved steadily since the early 2000s, there is a big gap between the dental health of children from the most and least deprived backgrounds and it appears to be widening.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman credited the Childsmile programme, which gives parents a free toothbrush, toothpaste and oral health education information for their child, for the improvement.
She said: “We welcome that the proportion of children with no obvious decay experience has increased to 71% in 2018, compared with 58% in 2008.
“We want to see these positive trends continue by tackling health inequalities in children.
“This is why children living in our most deprived areas are entitled to receive fluoride varnish applications at nursery or school.

“We have also extended the Childsmile Programme to all nursery and primary one and two children in the most deprived communities across Scotland.