Fluoridation report ignored wider health issues - review

An independent scientific review of the Government's recent report on fluoridation has been sharply critical of its findings.

The Forum on Fluoridation, set up by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin in May 2000, released its report last September. Nearly 90 per cent of the 1,050 submissions it received objected to fluoride in the public water supply.

It recommended that fluoride levels in tap water should be reduced, but discounted claims that there are serious health risks posed by the practice.

However, the independent review, conducted for Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment (VOICE) by a team of international scientists, attacks the Government report for focusing primarily on the dental effects of flouride and ignoring its more wide-reaching health issues.

The Fine Gael health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell, today commended the VOICE report, saying it shows that Government policy of flouridation poses a serious threat to the public.

She said flouride in water supplies has been tentatively linked with a number of serious ailments, including Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis and skeletal flourosis. While the proof was inconclusive, "the precautionary principle must apply", she said.

The Dublin South TD described the Forum report as a "disappointing cop-out" and called the recommendation for lower dosages "meaningless".

The report also recommends that parents should be advised not to use toothpaste containing fluoride when brushing the teeth of children under two years of age.

But, Ms Mitchell said, this warning is pointless when one considers the fact that babies who are bottle-fed with baby formula constituted from tap water are ingesting 100 times more flouride than those fed with breast milk. Up to 70 per cent of Irish babies are bottle-fed, she said.

"In a democratic country people must be given a choice in what medication they take," she said. "Mass medication of unmeasured and immeasurable doses of anything is completly unethical and I would plead with the Minister to stop its addition to our water supply now."