Madam, - Worrisome as the under-reporting of adverse drug reactions may be (Nov 8th), its scale is nothing compared to the almost complete non-reporting of adverse reactions from another widely ingested medicinal product, fluoride. With four in 10 teenagers now exhibiting signs of poisoning from fluoride, only the 120 conscientious dentists in Irish Dentists Opposing Fluoridation have reacted, while the State's drugs watchdog, the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) looks the other way.
The EU Medicinal Products Directive (2004/27/EC) which the IMB is charged with enforcing, defines a medicine as "any substance. . . presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease in human beings" and almost every time the Minister for Health refers to the fluoride she adds to drinking water, she claims it is to prevent the "disease" of dental caries. Why then has the IMB never issued a product authorisation for this medicine as required by the directive, which came into force here a year ago on October 30th, 2005?
Lest readers might think this a mere administrative oversight by a key enforcement agency of the Minister, they should also consider that fluorosilicic acid is not a pharmaceutical product and has never been approved by any health regulatory agency in the world, including the US Federal Drug Agency. The most likely explanation for this is that fluorosilicic acid is an industrial by-product of phosphate production. - Yours, etc,
ROBERT POCOCK, VOICE of Irish Concern for the Environment, Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2.
Madam, - As a former member of the Fluoridation Forum, representing the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association, I welcome the decision by Minister for Health Mary Harney to reduce the levels of fluoride in our drinking water, four years after the publication of the report of this body, which recommended such a reduction.
Nevertheless, our association remain steadfast in our opposition to the addition of this chemical to our drinking water. We note recent research which found that Irish children brush their teeth much less frequently than children in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Norway.
We advocate a non-chemical approach to the issue of the prevention of dental decay in a world already awash with chemicals. - Is mise,
ELIZABETH CULLEN (Dr), Thomastown, Kilcullen, Co Kildare.