Flouride is added to water supplies in Ireland. In fact Ireland has some of the most fluoridated water in the world. Green party members are generally opposed to the process, and in the past have tried to have the practice stopped.
On balance, I think that there is no doubt that fluoride is a poison, and that it should not be added to drinking water without the consent of those using the water. The benefits of adding fluoride are not significant enough for mass fluoridation. We need to stop doing it.
There is a lack of strong evidence in the scientific literature for adding fluoride to water. In a review published in the reputable British Medical Journal in 2000, the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination York in England found that while there were studies that indicated that there could be some benefit to dental health, the quality of the evidence is low. Overall, reductions in the incidence of tooth decay were found, but they were smaller than previously reported and commonly expected. The prevalence of fluorosis (mottled teeth) is highly associated with the concentration of fluoride in drinking water. However, an association of water fluoride with other adverse effects was not found by the review.
In Ireland a "Forum on Fluoridation" set up by the Dept of Health in 2002. They suggested that fluoride in water needed to be kept at a range of 0.6 to 0.8 ppm, although many Irish supplies have a lot more than that.
UK Greens, Canadian Greens have also called for the addition of fluoride to be banned in drinking water.
A group of transition year students in Tralee (on facebook here) is now highlighting the fact that food and drink products manufactured in Ireland now have high levels of fluoride in them. Perhaps, this, and the fact that we will soon be paying for water is a good enough reason to stop adding the chemical to our supplies.
Glad to see this issue is on the political agenda now. It seems that the "authorities" are hopelessly missguided in their belief that fluoride will stop us getting cavities.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that cutting out some sugar from our diets might have the same (or better) results.
I first started thinking more about this fluoride problem when I read an article about it on a blog: eliminating fluoride in water where it basically tells us that beside fluoride there are many other chemicals leaching from farms and industrial sites into the water table.
It seems (if this is all to be believed) that the number of chemicals entering the food chain via our drinking water is increasing faster than the water companies can hope to keep up.
The technology employed by our water suppliers adds chlorine and fluoride while their filtering systems are inadequate for taking out other harmful impurities and giving us the truly clean water we have believed we are getting.
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