Back in 2001, Fine Gael said it would stop adding fluoride compounds to Irish water if it was re-elected but in power a decade later, Fine Gael is refusing to honour that pledge.
The latest demands to stop water fluoridation in Ireland came on On October 1st 2014, from Senator Mary Ann O’Brien and Senator Fergal Quinn, who told the Seanad that it was completely unethical for the current Government to charge people for water which is being medicated without their consent.
Days later, Dublin City Council joined Cork City Council and eight other local authorities around the Republic to tell the Irish Government it should stop adding fluoride compounds to public water supplies.
Water Fluoridation adds about 10 Million euro a year to Irish water treatment costs. The 50-year old policy is expensive as well as hugely controversial. Worst of all, toxicology experts have warned the policy may be responsible for the deaths of a few young boys each year from painful bone cancers.
Yet the Irish Government seems strangely unresponsive to this mounting pressure from all segments of Irish society. It is still refusing to keep the promise it made in 2001, though it has commissioned at report from the Health Research Board (WWW.hrb.ie) on what the science says. That report is due in two weeks. It should show piles of Evidence of how fluorides in water can affect people with various health conditions. This evidence of adverse effects of Fluoride compounds on human and animal health has been mounting since the 1970s. Pregnant woman, unborn children and young boys are among the patient groups worst affected by fluorides in water. Thyroid patients like myself across Ireland are also adversely affected by fluorides in water.
We are glad that Senators and Councillors agree that we are right to refuse to pay for water that contains a medication linked to so much ill-health.
Literally tons of scientific studies now exist that show very clearly how fluorides in water are linked to lower levels of intelligence, osteoporosis, Alzheimers and an increased chance of young boys dying from bone cancer before they even reach adulthood.
So It would be good if someone at the Right2Water.ie meeting at the Mill Theatre, Dundrum tomorrow night would explain why it is morally wrong to ask people to pay for water medicated without consent, when Fine Gael said it would stop water fluoridation.
Why does this Government continue to break its word on stopping this controversial 50-year old policy when there is huge opposition from elected representatives, business people, parents and patients?
