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Fluoridation demise in Switzerland
Fluoridation stopped after 41 years experimenting on the people
Commission for Health
stops Fluoridation in Basel
Swiss Canton Basel-Stadt
stopped Fluoridation of Drinking Water on 9 April 2003.
The Great Council of the
Swiss Canton Basel-Stadt has, on April 9, 2003, on a motion brought forward
by the Commission for Health and Social Issues, totally repealed the
"Resolution of the Great council concerning the introduction of fluoridation
of drinking water for the control of caries". The fluoridation of drinking
water initiated by Basel-Stadt on May 2, 1962 was thus stopped after 41
years.
The reasons that were
given were:-
-
The preventive effect of the fluoridation of
drinking water could not be proved by any study. When specialists do not
succeed in producing definite proof in 40 years, the issue has to be
abandoned.
-
In spite of the fluoridation of drinking
water caries has been on the increase with children.
-
The danger of fluorosis is played down,
nobody talks about fluorosis of the bones. The fluoridation of drinking
water is particularly problematic in the case of young children and
babies.
-
Less than 1% of the fluoride in drinking
water is actually used for "prevention of caries", more than 99% of the
fluoridated water is used for washing, cleaning, industrial production
etc. and thus only pollutes the environment, a very undesirable imbalance.
Rudolf Ziegelbecker,
Konradin Kreuzer
EDITORIAL
Medical Capitol
stops fluoridation
The news that Basel,
Switzerland has stopped fluoridation seems to be causing great concern in
dental groups and the fluoridation lobby.
So it should.
Basel, Switzerland, is
the centre of the world's medical, chemical and drug manufacturing
industries. it is the scientific centre of pharmacology.
Yet Basel has abandoned
artificial fluoridation of its public drinking waster supplies after 41
years, due to concerns for health, particularly fluorosis caused by
artificial fluoridation; lack of proof of effectiveness; an increase in
dental decay rather than the reduction that artificial fluoridation is
supposed to deliver and pollution of the environment with the toxic
fluorides.
This is surely a wake up
call to all dentists and politicians in Australia who continue to promote
artificial fluoridation of drinking water and a major concern for the
population of the many towns and cities across Australia, where fluoridation
has been introduced without approval from the citizens.
The Therapeutic Goods
Administration (TGA) has just urgently recalled from sale over 1,500 brands
of pharmaceutical health care products manufactured by Pan Pharmaceuticals
in Australia, to prevent possible damage to the health of consumers.
It is surely even more
important to stop possible further damage to the health of millions of
Australians from consumption of water supplies laced with known toxic
fluorides, unregistered for humans, US Congress Report 2001.
However, the TGA has also
faced press criticism for acting too slowly in the recall. It was more than
3 months after multiple reports from around Australia of hallucinations,
blurred vision, drowsiness, confusion and unsteady walking after taking one
product that the TGA initiated the recall.
The ineffectiveness of
the TGA as a regulatory Government body has long been a concern to our
Associations in relation to poison warnings on and control of fluoride
toothpaste sales. Although the warning, "Poison S5, keep out of the reach
of children", was on toothpaste tubes until 1960 and therefore only
available from chemists, the Government approved removal of this warning by
reclassifying toothpastes as cosmetics, with the National Health and Medical
Research Council stating that this was "for the purpose of sales
regulation".
By 1998, with most other
countries around the world requiring warning labels on toothpaste tubes, the
Australian TGA National Drug and Poisons Schedule Committee again
considered the matter. The TGA Committee received a submission from our
Association, but they resolved that "Warning statements on toothpastes
mandated through the Scheduling process are not warranted at this time. The
Committee strongly supports the voluntary labelling of toothpaste".
Government Gazette of 24 June 1998. Australian Fluoridation News,
Vol. 34, No. 6 Nov-Dec 1998. Their advice is "if you accidentally
swallow more than is used for brushing, seek professional help, or contact a
poison control centre immediately."
The folly of the attitude
of "leave it to the manufacturers to handle" is illustrated by the Pan
emergency recall. "Bad batches" of fluoride toothpaste have been classified
as an industrial waste and as a potentially dangerous substance have
required special approval for burial in landfill in Iowa U.S.A. -
Australian Fluoridation News, Vol. 19, No. 1. Jan-Feb. 1984.
In the case of a known
poison, the TGA has been a willing partner to allowing sale of fluoride
toothpaste without a poison safety warning. Fluoride toothpaste should be
banned, or at least danger warnings on fluoride toothpaste tubes should be
mandatory, to follow world health practice.
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