'Toxic' fluoride gets brush-off from author Barry

Grainne Cunningham

September 22 2001 12:11 AM

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THE level of dental decay in Ireland fails to support the argument that adding fluoride to water is good for our teeth, a new book claims.

In Fluoride - Drinking Ourselves to Death, author Barry Groves also argues that fluoridation of drinking water may contribute to brittle bones, cancer and other ailments.

Despite the fact that two-thirds of the population have been drinking fluoridated water since 1964, Ireland ranks sixth in Europe for tooth decay, behind unfluoridated countries.

Mr Groves argues that this undermines arguments from the dental establishment that fluoridation helps to preserve children's teeth.

And he goes further in stating that "any claim that water fluoridation is safe is at best wishful thinking and at worst a lie".

The book states that fluoride is more toxic than lead and only slightly less toxic than arsenic and that it is scientifically linked to osteoporosis, bone cancer, irritable bowel syndrome and thyroid damage.

Mr Groves claims to have assembled evidence refuting every single argument made by the dental establishment in favour of fluoridation.

He quotes Dublin dentist Don McAuley, who acts as an advisor to the Irish Fluoride Free Water (IFFW) campaign. Mr McAuley says at dental school students were told only one side of the story.

"Water fluoridation is sold as the greatest preventative oral health measure ever devised but the story is biased and the indoctrination manipulative," he said.

Mr McAuley also warned that if the government continued to mass medicate the Irish public without its consent, it will have to face up to the consequences. "It is my belief that the bill to the taxpayer will dwarf the army deafness claims," he said.

Water fluoridation was first introduced here in 1964. Since then, a number of local authorities have passed motions calling for the ending of fluoridation but such motions have been overruled by the Department of Health, the book claims.

In all other countries, where fluoridation has been debated, "the process is banned, has been abandoned, or has never been adopted in the first place", Mr Groves says. It is widely used only in countries where it is mandatory.

In countries where fluoridation was practiced and then stopped dental decay has dropped rather than increased.

* Fluoride - Drinking Ourselves to Death will be published by Newleaf on Tuesday.