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Media Release: 14th May 2009        Queenslanders For Safe Water Air and Food Inc

WORST AUSTRALIAN FLUORIDE ACCIDENT

Premier Bligh  today  announced an accident at the North Pine Dam Water treatment plant  on May 1st when water massively overdosed with Sodium Silicofluoride was released into the public water supply.

About 4,000 homes are  believed to have received water containing 30mg/l fluoride. This level is nearly 40 times higher than the 0.8 mg/L  Qld Health advised in Nov 2008 was to be the level for water supplies in SE Qld.

Water with 30 mg/L fluoride ion is equivalent to 120 fluoride tablets per litre of water, or 30 fluoride tablets per  250 ml glass, yet the Premier has denied that there was a health risk.

At a media opportunity on 5^th October 2008 , the spokesperson for Prominent, supplier of fluoridation equipment used in Qld,  told Stephen Robertson,  then Qld Health Minister, that the maximum fluoridators could inject was 0.8 mg/L.

It appears that there has been three major malfunctions , one with the injector continuing to inject much more fluoride into the water than it was supposed to, combined with failures of the automatic inline monitoring and automatic failsafe shutdown system.

Despite fluoride levels being able to be measured in seconds with ion  selective electrodes, it was not until 12 days after the accident that SEQ Water received test results showing  the extremely high fluoride levels. WHY THIS HUGE DELAY ????

Despite the Premiers denial of harm, persons consuming this water were overdosed 40 fold with fluoride.  People particularly at risk of harm include  Diabetics, the Kidney impaired , people with  chemical sensitivity or hypersensitivity to fluoride and infants.

Mothers  in the suburbs affected, who made up a day’s worth of baby bottles with tap water on the morning  of  1^st May would have overdosed vulnerable infants at every feed . The huge bolus dose of fluoride  could have permanently damaged children’s developing teeth but  this damage, Dental Fluorosis, will not be seen until  their teeth erupt from the gums.

The Premier has previously received documented medical evidence that  exposure to fluoride at 1mg/L can drastically reduce lung function in a sensitive person. It can only be imagined what could happen with a sensitive person drinking water at 30mg/L.

Queenslanders For Safe Water, Air and Food Inc demand that the Premier and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young immediately shut down all Prominent fluoride dosage units at all treatment plants until a full investigation is carried out.

Authorised by Merilyn Haines spokesperson for Queenslanders For Safe Water, Air and Food Inc   www.qawf.org

media contact  0418 777 112

FLUORIDE DOSING LEVELS       

(Advice from Qld Health received  19/11/2008   from  Environmental Health Branch-Queensland Health Ph. 3234 1258)

Zone 1: 0.6mg/L ( North East Queensland)   

Zone 2: 0.7mg/L  ( Rest of Qld)        

Zone 3: 0.8mg/L ( South East Queensland)

End

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