Health minister plans mass medication with fluoridation

[G4Z]

Well, I have lived in the North East all of my life and the water here is fluorinated and I can't say I know of anybody having any health issues due to it and I know I am certainly one of the most anti authoritarian people on this board so I really doubt the 'makes people stupid and docile' line. I would like to see a proper scientific study on the subject as there should have been before they introduced it up here, however I won't worry about it so much that I stop drinking tapwater. Seems to me there is a fair bit of scaremongering around the subject.

Hang on while I stick a scary image in my post to make it have more impact :

[Sinizter]

The small amounts of fluoride that would be added to the water are beneficial and will improve dental health. I am a dentist and we have been through studies etc and I am convinced on the benefits of doing so.

All those side effects of fluoride listed are only when significant concentrations of fluoride are ingested.

Is it mass medication without express consent - yes. If you are against it based on that, then yes you have a fair point. If you are against this based on conspiracy theory and scaremongering, then it is just BS.

Too much water is bad for you, too much oxygen is bad for you, too much sleep is bad for you and so is too much good food. Too much fluoride too is bad for you. But you wont get to those levels from water fluoridation.

I am not very concerned either way. Whatever will happen will happen.

[Parm]

For me, I just don't like the idea of adding extras to our water. Water is one of the few things a lot of people get to consume in a largely natural state.

It'd be like adding Vitmamin C to the water in an effort to improve everyones immune system. Just doesn't seem right, water isn't in my opinion the best way to deliver medication.

If bad teeth are a big concern, the Health Minister should look into bottled water with added fluoride. Rather than giving fluoride to everyone.

[G4Z]

Water is hardly pure H2O, its full of calcium and magnesium and all kinds of stuff depending on where you live anyway.

[Parm]

That doesn't mean we should keep adding to it though

[Steven W]

Well, I have lived in the North East all of my life and the water here is fluorinated and I can't say I know of anybody having any health issues due to it

You're hardly going to get people with Alzheimer's and brittle bone disease telling people it was the water that done it to them.

PS. Love the scary pic

[[GSV]Trig]

So basically then people are paying our government to get rid of there waste flouride and then the government is getting rid of it by putting it in our water supply...

Wonderful

[pollaxe]

Surely if there's any doubt (and there does seem to be doubt here) then the onus must be to prove that it is safe before doing it?

Maybe in an ideal world....

[G4Z]

You're hardly going to get people with Alzheimer's and brittle bone disease telling people it was the water that done it to them.

PS. Love the scary pic

Well ok, but you would think that seeing as it has been in the water here for like 30 years there would be some statistical difference in people with fluorinated water and those without. You would think that would make at least the local news here and might impact the decision to roll it out nationwide. As I have seen no evidence of this I really don't think I can take the scare stories seriously.

However, I will throw in another little factoid that I am sure our resident dentist can confirm and that is that fluoride only has an effect on kids (up to age 11 IIRC) and no effect on adult teeth. Anyway, as it goes I have been drinking it for 27 years nearly and I have good teeth and no bone problems so I think I will keep on drinking it.

Oh and one other point I think worth mentioning is that I bet nobody here really thinks to hard about what is in a can of coke or a lovely pint of beer but I bet if you looked into it either would be associated with a far far far bigger list of health problems and you probably all chug them down anyway.

[Sinizter]

Intake of fluoride is beneficial until the teeth are fully developed. That can be up to the age of 15. Main benefit is upto age 12 or thereabouts. When I have children if they are not in an area with fluoridated water, I will certainly be giving them fluoride supplements.

On adult teeth, it is not beneficial to have an intake of fluoride. But there is a beneficial topical (contact) effect. Fluoride in anything you put in the mouth help the enamel to remineralise (basically get harder/stronger) after it has been weakened by demineralisation (by drinking acids / sugary stuff). A continued intake of fluoride within the same concentrations as involved with water fluoridation has no harmful effects.

There is no statistical or any other correlation (except fantasy) between levels of "brittle bones" or alzheimers and a fluoridated water supply.

Areas of extremely high natural fluoridation exists and people in these areas can end up with mottling of teeth, and similar internal effects on bones. But these are concentration that 10s or 100s of times more than those in a fluoridated water supply.


A can of coke is raw mineral acid with some flavouring.