Lithgow Info

At 8.30am yesterday morning the results of the poll we have been running on the lithgow-info.com website stood at 73 against fluoridation and 31 votes for fluoridation.

I watched in amazement yesterday between the hours of 9.32am and 17:26pm whilst the poll completely turned around after a radio interview I did with ABC. By 17:26pm yesterday afternoon the results of the poll stood at 91 votes against and 147 for flouridation. Looking at the visitor statistics of the site I noticed that the site had in fact only had 22 visitors.

To me this looked to be very odd. On examining the server logs to verify raw data for the site I found that between the hours of 9.32am and 17:26pm one IP 203.32.142.5 had constantly been hitting the poll.

This IP belongs to "Australia Parramatta Western Sydney Area Health Service". Another IP 203.21.192.1 turned out to be "Australia Lismore Northern Health Computer Service".

At the Lithgow Council public meeting the Dental Officer for the Western Sydney Area Health Service threatened to withdraw funding for Dental Services if Lithgow does not accept fluoridation of our water supply.

This threat came as a response to a number of questions being asked by the public who attended the meeting. The feeling I got was that if you asked a question that was not liked, or which the Health officials could not answer, or put forward your own research you were ridiculed.

Apparently this is not the first time, according to witnesses this has also happened to Gosford and Mudgee.

The slide presentation shown in Lithgow was apparently exactly the same presentation as shown in the above towns as well, even down to the same photos and percentages. Only the names of the towns was changed according to witnesses who have attended all presentations. Is it the same presentation that is shown to all towns in NSW?

My main concern is there still has not been an answer to my question on studies/research undertaken and available on the adverse affects of fluoride on other parts of the body besides teeth.

The obvious refusal and arrogance of the Health Officials at the meeting to even consider any independent research into effects of fluoride on the body already undertaken both in Australia and Internationally.

It really makes you wonder just how "safe and effective" fluoride is going to be when added to our water supply. We were also told that it was completely safe to mix baby formula with fluoridated water and that fluoride toothpaste is not toxic and poses no harm if swallowed by children (even if they swallow a whole tube).

Back in 1991 when I was an elected Councillor on Lithgow City Council, the NSW Department of Health was trying to convince us that fluoride was beneficial in stopping dental caries. The existing Council debated the issue for months. We were given lots of statistics. We were not given any information on the possible side effects of fluoridation. I could however remember my Doctor telling me that there was no proven evidence that taking fluoride tablets or fluoridation was of any benefit when I was pregnant. In fact it was mentioned that there had been severe cases of fluoride overdose in India.

I was not convinced so I started to do my own research.

According to the current consensus view of the dental research community, fluoride's primary - if not sole - benefit to teeth comes from topical application to the surfaces of teeth (while in the mouth), and not from ingestion.

It is also acknowledged by dental researchers that fluoride has little effect on preventing cavities in the pits and fissures (chewing surfaces) of teeth - where the majority of tooth decay occurs.

Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, tooth decay rates have declined at similar rates in all western countries in the latter half of the 20th century - irrespective of whether the country fluoridates its water or not. Today, tooth decay rates throughout continental Western Europe are as low as the tooth decay rates in the United States - despite a profound disparity in water fluoridation prevalence in the two regions.

Within countries that do fluoridate their water (such as the United States and Australia), recent large-scale surveys of dental health - utilizing modern scientific methods not employed in the early surveys from the 1930s-1950s - have found little difference in tooth decay, including in "baby bottle tooth decay", between fluoridated and unfluoridated communities. Scientifically advanced and health conscious countries such as Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan. Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have totally rejected fluoridation? http://fluoridealert.org/faq/