MEDICINE WEEKLY,
Eireann Publications, 25 Windsor Place, Dublin 2.
20 June, 2001.
Protestors march to end fluoridation in Ireland.
The citizens' group Fluoride Free Water has called on the Minister of health to stop artificial water fluoridation in Ireland immediately. Some 70 protestors marched though Dublin's city centre to hand in their letter of protest to the Department of Health last week.
The call for the cessation of water fluoridation is based on the precautionary principle adopted by the EU, which states that if there is any doubt about the potential harm that exposure to a chemical substance may cause, then governments must stop using it and investigate immediately. Fluoride Free Water are campagining for the Minister to commission independent, scientific studies into the health effects of fluoridation in Ireland, drawing attention to the fact that such a study has never been carried.
Dr. Don Mac Auley, a Meath dentist who has seen the high incidence of fluorosis in his patients for many years, has claimed that the Government's Forum on Fluoridation is biased and more interested in hiding the truth than establishing the real facts about water fluoridation.
"Ireland is now the only European country that mandates water fluoridation by law. Fluoridation has actually been banned in Holland and Denmark. I hope the Minister recognises the Irish people's right to choose," Dr. Mac Auley told Medicine Weekly.
Dr. Mac Auley called on Irish doctors to look out for signs of fluoride damage in their patients. "Teeth are the only part of a human skeleton that is visible and we can clearly see the damage that fluoridation does to them. It is only sensible to question what damage it might be doing to other parts of the body."
By Alison Moore