Page 68 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991

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We see that fluoride is a waste product from aluminium smelters, fertiliser factories, petrol refineries, plastic producers, chemical factories, steel mills, glass manufacturers, brickworks and so on. In Canberra we get our fluoride from toothpaste, the water supply, drinks, the food chain where it builds up remarkably, tea, beer, gels, tablets and various other methods. It is seen, by the evidence submitted to the ACT inquiry, that tooth decay is not caused by a fluoride deficiency. There has never been any study in the world showing that healthy teeth have more fluoride in them than decayed teeth. That simply is not the truth. It is not a build-up of fluoride in teeth that makes any difference whatsoever.

In a letter to the ACT inquiry from the Swedish Government, it was stated:

The Commission has noted that caries is a disease which can be prevented. The basic cause of caries is the consumption above all of sweet foods.

Don't we know that? Thus, the prevention of caries must be based on dietary and mealtime habits. Dr Sampson made a particularly valid comment. He said:

The principle at stake in the fluoridation battle, rightly understood, emerges as the most vital of all principles in the conduct of human life. Children's teeth are decaying mainly because of the weakness of many parents (i.e. in not controlling the intake of refined carbohydrates by their children) and the avarice of commercial interests in exploiting the weakness of the parents and the sweet tooth of the children ... It would be a grave social crime to attempt by spurious remedies to conceal this profound social evil in our midst. What is urgently needed is a vast educational campaign at many levels on the essentials of health.

There is some sense; perhaps one of the most sensible things said in the inquiry.

How do people vote when they get a chance to have a say on compulsory artificial fluoridation? We know that on the Gold Coast fluoridation was stopped in 1979. In Portland, 86 per cent against fluoridation; Hamilton, 68 per cent; Ararat, 64 per cent; Ballarat, 94 per cent; Buninyong, 93 per cent; Glenville, 89 per cent; Horsham, 85; Deniliquin, 80 per cent; Howlong, 97 per cent; Moree, 96 per cent; Pallamallawa, 98 per cent. When people get a chance to have a say on artificial fluoridation, what they say is no. They seem to think, when the state decides that it is a good idea to force a drug on the population without any say, that it is time to say no.


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