Bristolians Against Fluoridation (BAF) is a new group formed to oppose the imposed mass medication of Bristol and the surrounding areas in that would result from NHS South West instructing the water company to fluoridate our tap water. Their view is that fluoridation is not ethical, does not work, is not safe and therefore not wanted. The Government are keen on fluoridation but we must not allow it to be imposed upon us here. The decision to fluoridate water in Hampshire was recently taken despite 72% of the public being opposed!

If all our drinking water was fluoridated, people would be consuming something designed to create bodily changes (ie. a medication) without their consent. Fluoride is supposed to reduce tooth decay but there is no high-quality research that shows that putting it in drinking water safely and effectively achieves this. Most of Europe has seen falling rates of tooth decay for several decades without a policy of widespread water fluoridation.

Fluorosilicic acid, the substance that is most likely to be used to fluoridate Bristol’s water, is a contaminated waste product from phosphate fertiliser manufacturing, registered as a Class 2 poison under the Poisons Act 1972. No license has ever been obtained for such a substance either as a food or a medicine. Furthermore, overfeeding of fluoridation substances into drinking water can cause serious health problems: In the 1990s in Hooper Bay, Alaska, equipment and human failure resulted in 1 death and 295 cases of fluoride poisoning.

Bristolians will know little or nothing about this, but the decision process to fluoridate water throughout the Avon area has already begun with both NHS Bristol and NHS Bath and East Somerset and half the number of Primary Care Trusts in the Avon area asking NHS South West to conduct a feasibility study. A “consultation process” will follow acceptance of the feasibility report. Once that process has been gone through, NHS South West can use their new powers to instruct Bristol Water to fluoridate our drinking water.

In the first instance, BAF will be lobbying NHS North Somerset and NHS South Gloucestershire to reject fluoridation as these two parts of the NHS in the Avon area have yet to request a feasibility study. If successful, this would hopefully make it difficult for the NHS South West and the Strategic Health Authority to claim to be acting on behalf of us all. If unsuccessful, BAF will campaign for a fair, open and balanced public consultation process ending with a public vote on the issue, the result of which should be binding on the NHS.

Glenn Vowles – www.vowlesthegreen.blogspot.com

www.bristoliansagainstfluoridation.blogspot.com