Page 1513 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 27 September 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
her. I know of a lot more cases; I have been associated with the area for a long time. The NHMRC statement here runs totally contrary to the Illustrated Medical Dictionary and its statements.
It has been said by Mr Berry and Mr Humphries that the NHMRC is the peak body in Australia. Indeed it is; but let us have a look at the fact that it said that fluoride is perfectly safe for teeth. Can it be wrong? It also said that the Dalkon Shield was perfectly safe; DDT was safe; Debendox was safe; copper 7 was safe; DES was safe; 2,4-D was safe; 2,4,5-T was safe. I am not saying that the NHMRC does not do a lot of useful things, but I certainly suggest that it could be wrong, and it has been wrong often before.
Let us have a look at Sydney. There was a dental survey team which showed that there was only a two per cent reduction in dental caries, not the 60 per cent that is often claimed - only two per cent over a four-year study in Sydney. The team later admitted that they had selected children with above-average numbers of sound teeth. A scientific survey? Not likely.
The US National Institute of Dental Research, a peak body, conducted a survey of 39,207 children aged between five and 17 years which confirmed reports of other countries regarding the ineffectiveness of fluoridation. Its data showed that children who had drunk fluoridated water all their lives had no fewer decayed, missing or filled teeth than similar children raised in non-fluoride areas. It is unfortunate that that body did not publish openly the results of its work and that that information had to be obtained by Dr John Yiamouyiannis under freedom of information requirements. It is unfortunate that the debate on this issue has not been opened.
Mr Jensen mentioned that fluoride is a poison. If one looks in a medical dictionary one will find it listed as a rodenticide and an insecticide. That means it kills rats and insects. We are told that that does not really matter; obviously it depends on the dose one takes. In the 1970 booklet Fluorides and Human Health, the World Health Organisation stated that fluoride accumulates in the body. This particular rat poison builds up in the body. It is not only the dose one takes; it is whether one continues with the dose. It builds up in bones. It also builds up in the soft tissues.
Today we have talked about scientific research. What research has been done on those various other parts of the body? We talk a lot about teeth, but what about the other organs in the body? I say that there has been no scientific research conducted in Australia to look at the adverse effects on the rest of us, apart from our teeth.
There is no doubt that we have a raging controversy. This raging controversy is only on the medical side, not on the human rights side. There is no controversy there; it
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .