I am not a doctor or a dentist, so as with any health issue, seek professional advice from a professional; as brilliantly written, witty, and insightful as this blog might be, it is only a blog, get professional advice.
A respected senior dentist in Mt Gambier (for whom I have a great deal of personal respect because of his conduct as a person, not just his good dentistry) is an advocate for flouridation; we have briefly discussed it.
His opinion alone has made me recently review my position as an 'anti-flouridation' supporter, but I remain un-convinced as to the need for flouridation, and all of my concerns remain around potential negative health and environmental impacts.
In late 2009 (whilst running as an Independent candidate at the March 2010 state election) I was approached by anti-flouride campaigners and asked to look at their concerns.
I indicated that I supported flouridation, but agreed only because it seemed the right thing to do in terms of an appropriate democratic process; consider all issues objectively.
It took me only a few hours on sites like the World Health Organisation to effectively reverse my position of support, and I have repeatedly, publicly apologised to people like Sharon Stafford and Alex Young and congratulated them for their efforts.
The 6,600 signatures (many of them gathered on election day March 2010) on the official 'Give us a Choice' (my words) petition, is a massive statement from the community that at the very least we wanted the right to choose about flouridation; in Adelaide that percentage of the electorate signing a petition would be just over 200,000 signatures
Now the member for Mt Gambier, Don Pegler repeatedly, publicly stated (2009-March 2010) his personal support for flouridation would not stop him supporting the will of the people, but he simply handed the petition to Mike Rann and did not use the specifically allotted parliamentary time to say one single word about the petition.
My Concerns:
That nothing should be added to a water supply that is not absolutely necessary, eg, chlorine which is added to ensure clean, disease free water.
By comparison, flouride is added to (allegedly) address a medical issue, dental health; this clearly defines that flouridation is medication applied via the water supply.
I say allegedly because I do not understand how a topical medication that is in contact with the 'affected area' (the teeth) for only a brief moment (swallowing) can be effective.
What happens in the body, organs, bones, even the brain, once the flouride goes past the teeth are all concerns that are raised on the World Health Organisation site, amongst others.
Even the National Medical Health Research Council, which supports flouridation, has information on their website about negative issues with flouridation.
There are many other issues, eg, where the 'flouride' is sourced; it's listing as a poison; the vast amounts that end up in the environment via garden watering, toilet flushing, etc, etc; that I will cover in a future post, and I encourage people to investigate for themselves.
Good dental health is vital and can be easily achieved by re-instating mobile in-school dental services that give children regular, early, and convenient dental maintenance that also provides extensive base level experience for the trainee dentists who can staff this service (offer staff reduced HECS debts, etc, as incentive to travel the state); anything serious gets referred to a local dentist under government funding; it really is that simple.
Truth decay is an old joke used by anti-flouridation people to summarise the 'propaganda campaign' of flouride proponents like the South Australian state government.
The federal government's axing of the Enhanced Dental Care Scheme, with promises of a new, better system in 2 years time (2014), is an act of un-mitigated political bastardry; destroying a scheme that has drastically improved the dental health of many thousands of Australians, myself included, in pursuit of an un-achievable surplus.
In Mt Gambier, water flouridation defines the arrogance, incompetence, and deceits of the Rann/Weatherill government, particularly John Hill, and the failure that is alleged Independent Don Pegler, elected to parliament on Labor preferences and a serial apologist for the Labor party.
Tomorrow: Grant District Council needs Wind Turbine Viagra; They just can't get them up.
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