Letter by George Pinnell printed in the Doncaster Free Press newspaper  27th Sept 2018. 

 

"Threat to fluoridate town water supply"

 

Dear Sir

 

I should be glad if you would print  the following open letter in response to Dr Rupert Suckling's threat to fluoridate Doncaster:

 

I trust that Dr Rupert Suckling agrees that public safety is paramount. Before any money is wasted on feasibility studies he must ensure that basic safeguards are in place ahead of using the monopoly position of the water company as a method of delivering medication. As he would be subjecting people at large to this treatment, heedless of their consent, need or fluoride sensitivity; I would expect the safety precautions to be at least as stringent as for prescribed medicines. It is therefore vital that the fluoride compound(s) to be used fully comply with the other, basic, medical safeguards.

 

Please can he publicly confirm that the substances to be used will:

 

1. Have a medical products licence.

 

2. Be refined to British Pharmaceutical Standards (this is especially relevant as the fluoride is frequently sourced from pollution scrubbers so could readily contain other toxic contaminants including arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, lead and mercury).

 

3. That the fluoride concentration level does not exceed the normal safety limit for medications.

 

Other areas have jumped onto this dental fad without applying common sense safety requirements, thereby making their schemes fundamentally flawed. Indeed all of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have now abandoned this discredited practice. With all 4 of the fluoride trial areas in Britain prematurely stopping the experiment (as it had already proved too costly, ineffective and caused adverse health effects) this is clearly a futile avenue to pursue.

 

Failure to provide such essential safeguards would, in my view, be a breach of his duty of care and clearly make him unfit to hold such a public office.

 

 

George Pinnell