While some 62% of Americans and 73% of Irish people are exposed to fluoridated drinking water, Europe is almost wholly fluoridation-free.

This clear recognition of the risks of fluoridated water in making up infant formula is welcome and long overdue‚ said VOICE spokesman Robert Pocock, adding it completeley undermines the position of Health minister Mary Harney, who only the day before stated almost the direct opposite.

On Nov 8th she informed [2] the Dail (the lower house of the parliament of the Republic of Ireland) that fluoridated water is safe for use in babyfood; fluoride intake is well within the safe level‚ and is still relying on the flawed advice of her dental advisers and food safety experts who are completely compromised by their vested interests in protecting fluoridation policy regardless. This advice is in turn based on wildly inacurrate estimates of fluoride intake [3] involving predictions in place of  the necessary research that has never been carried out in Ireland. Mary Harney's predecessor Micheal Martin said that Ireland was too small a population to do such studies on. [4]

The ADA admits that fluoride exposure in babies is too high; this is also confirmed by Irish Dentists Opposing Fluoridation who state [5] that four in ten Irish teenagers have dental fluorosis. The minister must stop downplaying the seriousness of this tap-water risk because 30,000 new-borns in Ireland a year  receive only infant formula [6], most of which is of the reconstituted variety.

Since the minister told the Oireachtas (Parliament) Health Committee in July 2005: "if the Government thought for one moment that fluoridation did not have a positive effect, clearly it would do the right thing." [7]

The VOICE spokesman added  "This admission by the ADA leaves the minister no option but to do the right thing and end fluoridation of our drinking water."

[1] ADA interim guidance

[2] Dail Question by Deputy Catherine Murphy, Question No 184 Ref 36821/06 Written

[3] Seanad Debate 19th February 2002, Senator Avril Doyle MEP Newborn drinks 1 pint per day up to 3 months which if made up with fluoridated water (1mg/l) represents ingestion of 0.33 to 0.42 mg of fluoride per day for a 3 kg baby. This is from four to five times the safe level set by the British Medical Association, as quoted by Avril Doyle MEP.   

[4] Fluoride in our water; are we brushing with danger? Irish Independent

[5] www.idof.net and  www.fluoridealert.org/dental-fluorosis.htm.

[6] Ireland at 43% has one of the lowest levels of breast-feeding in the EU.

[7] Oireachtas debates

The European Commission on Fluoride

In Europe, hypocrisy reigns with regard to fluoride. According to European law, any substance presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease in human beings‚ is considered a medicine and has to be registered as a pharmaceutical product to be sold. Fluoride, as added to the drinking water, is promoted as a preventive treatment against tooth decay (caries) yet the fluorosilicic acid used for the purpose has never been approved to used as a medicine.