The long-awaited York Review on Water Fluoridation (1) is due to report on 6 October – and the Green Party says its findings are scientifically flawed and seriously misleading.

The Review will say that fluoridation is “marginally beneficial” – which will strengthen Tony Blair’s zeal to see Britain’s drinking water fluoridated, despite widespread public opposition (2).

The government’s White Paper _Our Healthier Nation_ specifically stated that there would be a review of the effects of fluoride on health -but the Greens maintain that the York Review has failed to achieve this due to narrow terms of reference and “systematic omissions”. Green Party Principal Speaker Margaret Wright explained: “The Review closed its eyes to all animal studies, all biochemical studies, all mathematical models – and even key research on the effects of fluoride on the thyroid.

“The Review has looked at fluoride in drinking water. But fluoride is a cumulative poison, and it’s the overall dose which counts (3).”

She added: “The methods by which the Review has conducted its work, together with the narrowing of the Protocols from the original intention to look at fluoride and health, is wholly unacceptable – there should be an inquiry into the procedures of the Review.”

Margaret Wright concluded: “Tooth decay is about poor dental hygiene and high-sugar diet. Mass medication with fluoride doesn’t address this problem, and doesn’t respect individual choice, but does have a cumulative toxic effect on the human body.”

The Green Party supports the National Pure Water Association’s stance – calling for the repeal of all existing legislation permitting water fluoridation.

In July, London mayor Ken Livingstone supported the Green Party’s stance against enforced fluoridation.

EDITORS’ NOTES:

1. Carried out by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at York University.

2. Recent polls have indicated as much as 97% public opposition to water fluoridation.

3. Eg tea is rich in natural fluoride, and people swallow fluoride from toothpaste and other fluoridated dental products. Research in fluoridated West Midlands found that 60% of the 200 volunteers tested had more than the government’s ‘safe’ level of fluoride in their bodies, and some had as much as four times the ‘safe’ level. Some 30% of children in West Midlands suffer from dental fluorosis – discoloration of the teeth caused by fluoride.

CONTACTS:
Margaret Wright (Principal Speaker) 01223 362128, 07967 833161
Felicity Mawson (Green Party Anti-Fluoridation Campaigner) 01376 519847
Spencer Fitz-Gibbon (press office) 0161 225 4863

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