Fluoridation Queensland

CONCERNED  ABOUT  YOUR  HEALTH?

YOU SHOULD BE;

THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT ISN’T!

This Is A Story Of Negligence & Deception…

The Bligh Government has been reckless in continuing to

force water fluoridation upon Queenslanders.

On 12 Feb 2008, the Fluoride Bill was introduced to Parliament, our Association warned the Premier and Health Minister of significant risks to community health from long-term ingestion of fluoride based on recent findings.

They chose to ignore this and, immediately began a fraudulent promotion of their water fluoridation plan, featuring a number of untruths.  Among these were (actual situation in red)

- Water fluoridation is safe –

NO, because fluoride comes from unrefined toxic industrial waste, never tested for safety – anywhere in the world.

- Water fluoridation is effective –

NO, recent dental survey data shows similar average decay rates in fluoridated and unfluoridated countries.

- Water fluoridation reduces tooth decay by 40% -

NO, the data used was old, specially selected, falsified and manipulated for maximum effect.

- Queensland children have the worst teeth in Australia  -

NO, latest figures show Tasmanians are worst (85% of that state is fluoridated!)

- Queensland Gov. issued misleading documents e.g. a photograph of badly decayed teeth claimed to be “teeth without exposure to fluoridated water” – but was clearly “baby bottle tooth decay” caused by excess sugar and poor dental hygiene which occurs in ALL states.

All Premiers and Ministers have a Duty of Care to protect citizens from harm. Have they been badly advised or deliberately misled. A similar situation applies to the recycled sewage effluent project, now delayed, but it can be easily reactivated.

DICTATORSHIP!

NO CONSULTATION, NO DEBATE AND NO REFERENDA HAVE BEEN ALLOWED FOR EITHER OF THESE PROJECTS

HELP US ABOLISH WATER FLUORIDATION IN OUR STATE FOR GOOD.

WHY HAS FLUORIDATION BEEN KNOCKED OUT OF MAINLAND EUROPE?

-  ASK ANNA BLIGH WHY -

See Back Page For More Good Reasons To Reject Artificial Water Fluoridation

F L U O R I D E   F A C T S

Having your cake and eating it too

Phosphate fertilizer plants produce large quantities of toxic waste (silicofluorides), which are recovered and require neutralization and disposal. Normally it would cost several thousand dollars per truckload to do this.  But it has been contrived for these unrefined products, with their heavy metal contaminants, to be sold for injection into the water supplies of compliant cities under the guise of reducing dental decay.  Industry thus benefits from not having to pay for it’s disposal, and at the same time makes a tidy profit on the sale of their waste.

Queensland’s fluoridating chemical, sodium silicofluoride, is produced in Belgium, which banned water fluoridation years ago. This is a double win for such polluters but a major loss for citizens and the environment.

Phosphate fertilizer manufacturers invest millions of dollars in grants and lobbying of government officials to promote water fluoridation as a means of their waste disposal (‘Fluoridation: Licence to Dump Toxic Waste in the Name of Public Health’, Health Action Network, Fluoride Report no.4, January 1997).

Fluoride harms health, and is not supported by all dentists, doctors and governments.

Powerful corporate interests are involved. Fluoridation is a 1950’s idea based on flawed research (see explanation at top of p.4), but has become a mantra for most dental schools whose uncritical staff and students have thus been indoctrinated about its supposed “benefits” for over two generations.  Medical schools have become aligned with this thinking. This is encouraged by the financial support to that flows to dental schools and to some practitioners from industries having much to gain financially in various ways from promoting fluoridation.

Finally, some governments can mistakenly consider fluoridation to be a cheaper and quicker way of trying to reduce tooth decay than running effective dental services for school children or promoting dental health in our community with the idea of eating a good diet, low in sugar, plus regular brushing.

Because governments can’t always be relied upon to do the right thing by it’s citizens.  We must protect ourselves.

Fluoridation is Violation of Medical Ethics – mass medication – with no choice

Fluoridation promoters try to deny that water fluoridation is a form of mass medication, saying claiming that, as there is usually a small amount of natural fluoride in most waters (i.e. calcium fluoride),  “it is just topping up the water with extra fluoride to achieve the optimal level”.  This is a careful evasion of the issues involved.

Firstly, the “extra fluoride” is in the form of sodium fluorosilicate, an unrefined artificial fluoride waste compound that does not occur in nature and has not been tested for safety.  This also contains traces of arsenic,* mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel, and other heavy metals plus various other contaminants. While the uranium and radium in fluorosilicic acid are known carcinogens, two other products of uranium, even more carcinogenic are radon-222 and polonium-210, are also present, which we should not be adding to our drinking water

Secondly, there is no “optimal level” for fluoride because it is not a nutrient.

Thirdly, the addition of fluoride to water cannot be likened to the blanket use of chlorine in water treatment, which is accepted as a necessary precaution to make the water safe to drink.

Finally, a medication is any drug or remedy used to treat a specific medical condition.  Here the fluoride is being used as a medication to treat people, in this case targeting their teeth.  Medical ethics demand that such substances be given to people with the right of refusal (i.e. informed consent), and if consent is obtained the medication is provided with individual dose and other specific recommendations to control its use.  This does not occur with water fluoridation. It is a totally irresponsible, unethical, clumsy and unscientific and a dangerous precedent in medicine.

Too much fluoride!

Fluoride proponents talk as if water is the sole source of this element, but many Queenslanders are already at risk of absorbing too much fluoride from other sources.  The reason is that fluoride use and emissions have become increasingly common in industry only since the end of World War II. Apart from superphosphate factories, pollution from aluminium smelters, oil refineries, car exhausts, glass manufacture, burning of coal, pottery firing and steel production are major sources.  Others are processed foods, soft drinks and fruit juices, canned foods, teas, pesticides, some pharmaceutical drugs, fluoridated toothpastes and dental rinses Fluoride pollution is widespread but is being ignored by governments.

The recent proposed adoption of the extremely toxic sulfuryl fluoride as a fumigant replacing methyl bromide means a significant increase in the contamination of our food supply with fluoride.

Thus adding fluoridated water at what is claimed to be the “optimal” rate could increase the dose to where some individuals suffer fluoride toxicity. Authorities confuse the issue by setting a desired concentration of fluoride in the drinking water, but this is a rate not a dose. The dose here is governed by the amount of treated water consumed by the individual.

For Queensland Health to talk of an “optimal” dose for fluoride in water is nonsense because clearly the dose of fluoride is uncontrolled in all respects: the “dose” one acquires from fluoridated water depends upon how much each person drinks, and that from other sources varies, cannot easily be measured and in practice is ignored. People who believe they are at risk for any reason should have their blood fluoride levels measured. Fluorosis (a visible mottling of the teeth), is a pathological condition. It affects humans and animals. Dental Fluorosis is an indicator of crippling skeletal fluorosis; which only becomes evident during teeth formation. The eruption of teeth is delayed in the presents of fluorides. Fluorosis which is not reversible and in more severe cases causes disfigurement and even facilitates decay. In these cases fluoride causes the exact problem it is supposed to prevent.

Dental fluorosis also means deposition of fluoride in the bones, causing brittleness in later life.

People with kidney impairment are at great risk. We need less fluoride in our communities, not more. The Government should start to monitor this aspect to identify problem industrial areas having sites of major fluoride contamination.

Even natural fluoride can cause health problems

Calcium fluoride occurs naturally, though mostly in relatively harmless small amounts, in most river and bore waters.  However, higher concentrations of this natural fluoride can cause problems. Large numbers of people in Japan, China, India, the Middle East and Africa develop dental and crippling skeletal fluorosis – abnormalities and brittleness of the bones – from drinking local water high in this natural fluoride over a long period.

Similar effects were observed in sheep consuming bore waters over much of Queensland and became a concern for productivity of flocks.  Research by the Queensland DPI [then the Dept of Agriculture & Stock] in the 1950’s developed management strategies to prevent younger sheep (the equivalent of human children and adolescents) from getting access to high doses of fluoride from bore drains because of the devastating effect on their teeth and bones.

Fluoride is a poison – and can kill you

While chronic exposure to low doses of fluoride cause progressive health problems, larger doses derived from accidents or incompetence at treatment works can cause acute toxicity resulting in illness, disability or death. Such incidents are known but are under-reported, since authorities have a vested interest in suppressing the information, but there have been many over the years.  For example, in Hooper Bay, Alaska, 260 people were poisoned and one man died after drinking water contaminated with 150 ppm of fluoride.  The accident was attributed to poor equipment and an unqualified operator.  Was this a fluke?  Not at all.  The US Centres for Disease Control has recorded a number of such incidents where human error or equipment failure resulted in a toxic dose of fluoride being released into the water that sickened or killed people.  Why should we be exposed to this risk?

Fluoride facilitates uptake of aluminium by the brain

Several studies (1990’s) showed that aluminium uptake by brains of experimental animals doubled in the presence of fluoride.  Rats fed the highest doses developed behaviour similar to that of senile animals and their brains at post-mortem showed cell loss and other damage characteristic of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease).  Since approximately half our population over 70 may eventually develop Alzheimer’s, based on US figures, this link needs to be explored in Australia.  Firstly, because a large proportion of our population has been forced to drink fluoridated water for a long period.  Secondly, aluminium salts  (especially aluminium sulphate) are added to help clarify the raw water at many municipal water treatment plants.

Exposure to fluoride can reduce IQ – is this the end of “The Smart State”?

There are now over 20 published studies, including 7 in the last 5 years,  reporting an association between high fluoride exposure and reduced IQ (intelligence capacity) [M. Connett & H. Limeback. 2008. Int Assn Dent Res 83^rd Gen Session & Exhibn].  Some of these studies were overlooked previously they are in Chinese science journals but are of great concern to us because even in the absence of fluoridated water, our citizens, especially children, can absorb excess fluoride from their diet, toothpaste and environment.  Also children are most at risk from early exposure to fluoride as their brains are still developing and therefore susceptible to interference from toxic chemicals. Babies are especially at risk and the US Centres for Disease Control now advise artificially fluoridated water should not be used for infants under one year old.  We cannot afford to have current and future generations “dumbed down” by a process which is avoidable if we have the will to address it and make  reduction of fluoride intake a public health priority.

Why have so many countries rejected water fluoridation?

Mainland Europe has rejected water fluoridation on ethical issues or on the grounds that it is unsafe and ineffective.  Most countries have never taken it up.  In 1971, after 11 years of testing, Sweden’s Nobel Medical Institute recommended against fluoridation and the process was banned.  The Netherlands outlawed the practice in 1976, after 23 years of tests.  France decided against it after consulting its Pasteur Institute and West Germany, now Germany, rejected the practice because the recommended concentration in water of 1 ppm was “too close to that at which long-term damage to the human body is to be expected”. In other words, there is currently no margin of safety, as is understood by informed members of the medical profession, in the practice of fluoridation but this precaution is lost on many dentists and others actively involved in promoting water fluoridation. There is no artificial fluoridation in India, Japan, China, or Russia. There are only 6 countries where the majority of people are forced to drink fluoridated water: USA, Australia, NZ, Ireland, Columbia and Singapore.  Why then does the Bligh Government deny that fluoridation has been rejected in many countries overseas, and refuse to examine the situation?

THE FINAL WORD ON WATER FLUORIDATION

Respected Brisbane physician Dr John Ryan (MBBS Qld, FRACGP, DCH (Irel), MSc Nutrition with Distinction (London) and Chairman of Professionals Against Water Fluoridation, says:

“We urge Queenslanders to study the evidence showing potential serious harm from long-term fluoride ingestion and to inform their councilors and state members how they feel about this matter”.

* Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health link inorganic arsenic in drinking water with type-two diabetes. 20 Aug. 08 (Google)

Citizens have an expectation that their governments will supply them with clean drinking water. We certainly do not expect it to be deliberately contaminated and or medicated by them…

Readers should consult our website www.qawf.org also fluoridealert.org  :  thehealthvine.net nofluoride.com & waterloowatch.com , for more information about the hazards we face from fluorides and water fluoridation.  Also see the book “The Fluoride Deception” by Christopher Bryson.

This brochure is posted on our website www.qawf.org; download and email to your contacts.

This brochure was prepared and delivered by Queenslanders for Safe Water, Air and Food Inc., a self-funded group of concerned health professionals, scientists, parents and grandparents acting in their own and in the public interest.  We receive financial support only from our members and donations from the public. Our opinion on fluoridation is not for sale nor has it been contrived for political advantage.

Become a Member: and help us get the fluoride tap turned off.

Contacts: Phone Angus  3254 4596  or Colin 04 3846 7996; info@qawf.org

Donations: You can donate to our Fighting Fund as follows (and we will be very grateful!):

Mail donations to:         QAWF Inc, PO Box 149, Archerfield Qld 4108.

Online transfers to:        Members & Education Credit Union

Account name:              QAWF Inc

BSB / Account number: 803 – 140 / 7057 5245

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