There is a sad parallel between the arrogant and reckless way that the Metropolitan Water District went ahead and fluoridated the water of 18 million people in Southern California and the current attempt by the Queensland government to mandate fluoridation for the whole state. Neither entity has conducted unbiased review of the scientific literature, both have ignored the warnings in the National Research Council (2006) review and neither has sought much input from the population on the matter.
On Tuesday February 12, at the same time that 40 Queenslanders were demonstrating outside parliament protesting the introduction by Premier Anna Bligh of a bill which would mandate the fluoridation of the whole of Queensland, I was being interviewed on a popular morning radio show hosted by Greg Cary.
Also appearing on the program was Dr. Janet Young the Chief Health Officer for Queensland.
One of the shocking things about Australia is that even though they have fluoridated their water for over 50 years. Apart from one small study on cancer in New South Wales, the authorities there have never conducted any health studies on their population. Instead they rely on reviews of the literature from overseas or reviews by their own National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Their last review was published in December 2007, however, in this, the authors cavalierly dismissed the 507-page review by the National Research Council (NRC, 2006) claiming that the fluoride levels considered were much higher than used in Australia. They thus repeated the same kindergarten nonsense of the ADA and the CDC which in a predictably self-serving manner confused the all-important difference between concentration, which can be controlled, and the dose which cannot. All three bodies thus avoid the critical question about margin of safety. Is there an adequate margin of safety between the doses which have been observed to cause harm and the doses that will be received by people drinking uncontrolled amounts of fluoridated water and receiving doses from many other sources (see Chapter 2 in the NRC review)? In addition, they avoid another troubling question: Is there an adequate margin of safety to protect ALL members of society including the very young, the very old, people with impaired kidney function and people with poor diet, especially those with low iodine intake. Low iodine intake is a real problem in Australia.
When Greg asked Dr. Young whether she had read the NRC (2006) report she confused this with the NHMRC (2007). She also confused the issue of primary health studies and reviews of the literature. Ironically, while stressing how much study of health was being done she mentioned that no evidence of allergies to fluoride had been found, which is extraordinary because one of the recommendations of the NHMRC report of 1991 was that the government should examine the anecdotal reports of people who are sensitive to fluoride. However, in 27 years no health authority has followed up on this recommendation. Thus, like every other health concern they are flying blind on this matter, as are most of the other countries which fluoridate their water. If you don't look, you don't find!
One point that Dr. Young made, which comes straight from the pro-fluoridation spin book, is the reason offered for why most of European countries do not fluoridate their water. She claimed that it was because European water systems did not have the delivery systems to do this. I didn't have time to rebut this. However, this same nonsense was used by Jason Armfield in his attack on those who oppose fluoridation in the piece he published recently (Australia and New Zealand Health Policy 2007, 4:25 http://www.anzhealthpolicy.com/content/4/1/25 ). On our home page you will find a listing of the reasons officials from many of these European countries have given for not fluoridating their water, and NONE of them use primitive water supply systems as an excuse! The reasons most frequently given are 1) there are unanswered health questions and 2) they didn't want to force fluoride on people who didn't want it ( see an appendix at the end of "50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoridation" on the right hand side of our home page at http://www.FluorideAlert.org).
I received this email from a listener to the program:
Just wanted you to know that I heard your interview with Greg Cary yesterday, and you came across very well. Congratulations and thanks!
Greg is very well informed on this issue, and one of our best and most respected talk show hosts, and it is really good to have someone in that position who will allow the truth to come out (and that is really what this issue is all about).
You may be interested to know that Greg's station (4BC) received a call from the Qld. Department of Health following the interview, quite offensive in tone, complaining that Dr. Young had not been treated fairly, had been tricked into having a debate with you (debate! shock! horror! gasp!), when she specifically asked that no such honest exchange of views take place. They accused Greg of bias (obviously thought they had exclusive rights), and even demanded that he keep a log of all comment on the issue to ensure there was nothing but perfect balance in future. Can you believe it? We'd be more than happy if that situation ever came about.
Where do these people think they live - North Korea? Their arrogance is staggering.
Needless to say, Greg responded excellently and at length today, putting these people in their place in no uncertain terms, emphasizing your eminent qualifications to speak on this issue, and that no topic and no point of view was excluded from his program. He concluded by saying: "There will be no log". It was definitely a plus for us, and a propaganda disaster for them.
We had our rally at Parliament House on Tuesday, and it went well, despite the rain. The Premier and Health Minister came out and were standing next to me, and I asked them both "Do you know that the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) (100 percent fluoridated) has the worst teeth in Australia?" (Child Dental Health Survey, Australia, 2002). The Premier acted dumb, the Health Minister denied it.
Many thanks for a great effort on our behalf.
Reports of the Brisbane demonstration can be found in our latest news section. See "Fluoride protesters to sink teeth into parliament" http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/3393.html and "Bill introduced to improve Queensland's oral health" http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/3396.html