A ray of hope! The Belgian Minister for Health, Magda Alvoet, has banned fluoride supplements because she recognises that they are dangerous to health. Belgium previously rejected water fluoridation.

It is encouraging to us who are forced to drink and bathe in fluoridated water to have such a high-profile acceptance of the toxicity of this industrial waste that is added to Irish water supplies.

We have to hope that some day our Minister for Health will, like his Belgian counterpart, come to recognise that fluorosilicates are bad for us and that lacing something as basic and essential as our nation’s water supply with it is unfair.

There are many other harmful substances around, but there is an element of choice in their consumption. If a person is aware of the neurological fallout from MSG and Aspartame, they can choose to simply avoid them by buying products that do not contain them.

How does a person avoid fluorosilicates?

It is doubly unfair if a person suffers from poor sulphation, like many people with autism, allergies, Alzheimer’s and MS. They have added difficulty in detoxifying environmental poisons, so they are even more vulnerable to the debilitating effects of fluoride.

We have to hope that Minister Martin will do the right thing by us and ban the fluoridation of water. It would be so easy. We just have to stop pouring it into the water supply. This will save an instant €1m a year.

Besides this initial spending cut, there will be the much greater savings from improved health and productivity.

If we want some idea of these savings, we should monitor the improvement in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a leading cause of
absenteeism, after fluoridation ceases.

Many IBS sufferers should experience a marked improvement within three weeks of the cessation of fluoridation (research by Prof AK Sushesia). Other side-effects of fluoride are more cumulative but, within a decade, we will observe a decline in the now increasing numbers of persons developing Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis and in teenagers with fluorosis, evident by brown staining on their teeth.

Banning fluoride in water wouldn’t even be contentious; I found, while handing out thousands of anti-fluoride leaflets, that the public desires such a ban.

Barring politicians, I have yet to meet one person who wants their water fluoridated.

And I wonder about our politicians, because they have chilled, non-fluoridated spring water on tap to drink in the Oireachtas cafeteria.

As far as I can see, removal of fluoride is a win/win situation for all of us. So who would be upset?

Kathy Sinnott,
The Hope Project,
St Joseph’s,
Ballinabear na,
Ballinhassig,
Co Cork.