Brisbane, 5 September 2005
The Members of the
Legislative Assembly
NSW Parliament
Macquarie Street
Sydney 2000
Dear Member of Parliament,In Brisbane I came across the The Sydney Morning Herald of 26 August with on the frontpage the news of increasing dental decay in children. And as is customary, it was immediately suggested that one of the major culprits was not enough fluoride intake! I yawned. We have had here in Brisbane a similar push for fluoride a year ago. To counter this I made a website with summaries of scientific reports which tell the real story about fluoride. And now I am passing this on to you to get you up to speed on this issue.
The emphasis of this website is on the toxicity of fluoride, which accumulates over time inside your body and can cause serious health problems. This gradual accumulation could be compared with fish in a lake with low mercury levels. Over time the fish get so toxic that it becomes dangerous to eat them. In the same way our bodies collect fluoride from our drinking water and food. So, even at low concentrations it can become harmful when time goes by.
As a politician this is basically all you need to know. Once you know that it is toxic and accumulates inside your body and can cause serious harm, you know that this substance should not be added to drinking water, no matter what. So, any discussion on the perceived benefits of fluoride in relation to teeth becomes irrelevant as there are more stakeholders than only children with developing teeth.
The Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies Act 1957 of NSW was passed almost 50 years ago. Since then much research has been done bringing to light many facts unknown in 1957. So, a review of this Act is well overdue. The common sense approach would be to ban water fluoridation outright. Probably through a Private Member’s Bill, as our so called Departments of Health are all in favour of water fluoridation. It may well be that this has to do with vested interests. There is a section on this on the website.
The website www.rag.org.au contains summaries of research reports published since 1957. These summaries are referenced. So, they can be looked up and checked out; you don’t need to believe anything.
I have included here an alternative interpretation of the graphic published in The Sydney Morning Herald. Also, a flyer of our campaign here in Brisbane has been included.
Yours sincerely,
signed
H. Julius
This page is maintained by
The Rivermouth Action Group Inc
as a community service.
E-mail: activist@rag.org.au