CORRECTION: An earlier version of this press release incorrectly stated that the 1974 regulation mandated fluoridation. The 1974 regulation permitted fluoridation, but did not mandate it. It was not until 1998 that Israel mandated fluoridation. According to a recent opinion from Israel’s Supreme Court, both laws have been revoked by a new regulation passed by the Ministry of Health. When the new law goes into effect (in the summer of 2014), no community in Israel will be permitted to fluoridate water.
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On July 29, 2013, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that new regulations require Israel to stop adding fluoride chemicals into public water supplies in one year, reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).
Izun Hozer Association for Dissemination of Health Education and Yaacov Gurman petitioned Israel’s highest court, November 12, 2012, demanding that the Ministry of Health order the cessation of fluoridation because it presents health dangers and its benefits are no longer widely accepted.
A 1974 regulation provided legal authorization for communities in Israel to fluoridate water. Since few communities elected to do so, another regulation was passed in 1998 that mandated fluoridation for all Israeli communities with more than 5,000 people. In April 2013, however, the Minister of Health, Yael German, revoked both the 1974 and 1998 regulations.
“It must be known to you that fluoridation can cause harm to the health of the chronically ill,” including “people who suffer from thyroid problems,” German wrote in a letter addressed to doctors opposed to ending fluoridation.
The Supreme Court ruled that the Ministry’s new regulations will not only bring an end to mandatory fluoridation in Israel in 2014 but will also put an end to any fluoridation – mandatory or voluntary. See translation of the Court’s ruling at: http://www.fluoridealert.org/
Paul Connett, PhD, FAN Executive Director, says, “Zealous fluoridation promoters try to convince the American public that ‘everyone drinks fluoridated water.’ But the opposite is true. An overwhelming number of countries do not fluoridate, including 97% of the European population. In fact, over half the people in the world drinking fluoridated water live in the US. We are the odd ones out.”
“Fluoridation is an outdated, unscientific, failed public health blunder,” says Connett. “What I find remarkable here is that Health Minister German has been able to escape the unscientific belief system on fluoridation that traps so many public health bureaucracies in fluoridated countries.”
Many communities, over the last few years, stopped fluoridation in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Recently, both Wichita, Kansas and Portland, Oregon rejected fluoridation 60% to 40%. Hamilton, NZ, councilors voted 7-1 to stop 50 years of fluoridation after councilors listened to several days of testimony from those for and against fluoridation
Windsor, Ontario, stopped 51 years of fluoridation. Sixteen regional councils have halted or rejected fluoridation in Queensland since mandatory fluoridation was dropped there in Nov 2012.
Meanwhile, New York City Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr continues in his effort to halt fluoridation in NYC.
Research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals indicates that fluoride ingestion is ineffective at reducing tooth decay and harmful to health. See http://www.FluorideAction.Net/
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