"Fluoride support against evidence" again.....

Looks like the local anti-fluoride mob have called in their "expert" from Geelong. A quick search reveals the author, David McRae BSc(Hons), Grad. Dip. Human Services. 

I must admit that his credentials had me a little intimidated, but I pushed on with skeptical diligence and had a look at the  USA’s National Research Council review of 2006 as he suggested. I could not have scripted it better myself. 

Read the comments to have a look at my response.

Sunraysia Daily

Letters to the Editor

01 Mar, 2010

Fluoride support against evidence

CLEARLY A lover of water fluoridation, Des Horwood writes an enormous letter (Sunraysia Daily, February 24). But in all those paragraphs he gives no evidence and virtually no credible reasons.

He says that his three children have no cavities; well if they live in the Mildura region they have achieved this without water fluoridation.

In Geelong, never fluoridated until a couple of months ago, 70 to 80 percent of children have no cavities, or one at most. Likewise, all the non-fluoridated cities and countries around the world do very well.

In Melbourne, fluoridated for 30 years, we see constant reports of rapidly rising tooth decay, and fluoridation is proving powerless to combat it.

The problem is eating and drinking junk food, not a lack of the toxic fluoride chemical.

The fluoride that the government wants to add to all water supplies is fluorosilicic acid, FSA, a waste product from several heavy industries.

As Mr Horwood points out, FSA is contaminated with heavy metals including arsenic, mercury, lead and cadmium, but then says we shouldn’t worry about it. What?

Any addition of toxic heavy metals to the bodies of our babies and children is dangerous. The goal of water suppliers is to reduce toxics as close as possible to zero, not to increase them.

He claims that only much higher levels of fluoride cause health problems. Has he consulted the USA’s National Research Council review of 2006?

It found serious health problems related to quite small daily intakes of fluoride that you can get from drinking and cooking with water that is artificially fluoridated.

Since Geelong was fluoridated mid-last year, we have seen many dozens of people reporting fluoride-related health disturbances like stomach pain, skin rashes and severe fatigue that only clear up when they take the costly measures to completely avoid tap water. That is unfair for them and they get no compensation.

Mr Horwood’s arguments against voting on fluoridation are just too silly to discuss.

If he really believes his own spin he would want to stop all democracy and elections of any kind. Parents always make the decisions for their children up to a certain age.

Fluoridation is a hangover from 1940s thinking, that throwing chemicals at everything will solve all problems. It is a blight on our country.

David McRae,

Geelong West.