Say 'no' to fluoride, urge campaigners

Ann Richards, chairman of Hampshire Against Fluoride, said individuals should have the right to choose whether or not to increase their fluoride intake, rather than have greater amounts forced on them.

She said her group, formerly known as the National Pure Water Association, would do all it could to block plans by Southampton City Primary Care Trust (PCT) for a water fluoridation scheme.

As reported in yesterday's Daily Echo, the PCT is considering adding fluoride to Southampton's water supplies after figures showed that 47 per cent of five-year-olds in Southampton had decayed, missing or filled teeth.

The figure has risen by ten per cent in the last two years, despite efforts to tackle the problem through oral health promotion programmes.

Last year, 3,203 teeth were extracted by dentists in the city - 2,752 of them from children.

Now Southampton City PCT has agreed to ask health authority bosses to co-ordinate feasibility studies for fluoridating the water before a public consultation takes place.

Today Mrs Richards, who has been involved in the anti-fluoride movement for ten years, said: "It is important that everyone makes their views known once the consultation period begins.

"We believe the public water supply should be pure drinking water - we do not want chemicals added to it. If fluoride is added to the supplies, it is not just a question of buying a filter or buying bottled water - we actually absorb this stuff in the bath.

"If you boil vegetables, the water evaporates and the fluoride condenses. Fluoride is poisonous. It is actually an industrial waste. It is not a natural substance and is licensed as an insecticide.

"Put simply, it is not what you want in your water. We do not know what effects it has on health."

Fluoride already exists naturally in Southampton's water supplies at less than 0.3 parts per million, but the optimum dental health level is one part per million.