Page 1543 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 27 September 1989
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that fluoride affects the metabolism of the body. We are not talking about teeth. They are freely admitting that it affects other parts of the body, and that is most important. That is what we are talking about. There are health issues here as well. In summary the same publication says on page 20:
Interference with enzyme action is not supported by scientific evidence.
On page 6 the council says that fluoride does affect enzymes; on page 20 it says it does not. This is the sort of rubbish that these people are prepared to publish. And these are the people that we have been hoodwinked into believing are the epitome of science in this country.
I will go further, because this particular publication has brought nothing but criticism from the scientific community of Australia. Our primary body says on page 10 of the same report that fluoride is an endogenous ion of the human body, the human organism. That is the most ridiculous schoolboy howler that has ever been perpetrated, because endogenous means that the ion is produced within the body. In other words, we are all alchemists. We can produce an element in our bodies. That is the sort of rubbish that these people are prepared to produce. I will not go on. The point is that we are being led to believe that these people know all, and in fact it is a very sad situation.
I am not challenging the whole of the National Health and Medical Research Council because there are some very good and learned people within that group. But the point is that within the dental side of that body there are six people responsible. That is what I am talking about. There are hundreds of people involved in the National Health and Medical Research Council who are excellent and are to be looked up to, but I am afraid that within that little group there is a problem.
I will now present a page from the report of the Committee of Inquiry into Fluoridation of Victorian Water Supplies 1979-80. On page 203 of that document, it is stated:
A vast amount of evidence is available as to its value, and to the possibility of harmful results.
I will repeat that. Again, we are not talking about teeth. We are talking about people and their general health. It says that a vast amount of evidence is available as to its value and to the possibility of harmful effects. Later, in the summary in the documentation, the report goes on to say that there really is not any evidence of harmful effects at all. However, general practitioners - doctors, mind you - presented affidavits that 100 of their patients had been adversely affected by fluoride to the degree that they needed to seek medical attention.
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