Tuesday 5 February 2008

Through gritted teeth.

Alan (postman prat) Johnson’s (Health Secretary and future leader of Her Majesty's Loyal opposition) has announced plans to have fluoride added to water throughout the country in an attempt to improve everyone’s dental health.

At present, about 10% of England's water is fluoridated - mainly in the north-east and West Midlands.

It’s all about trying to tackle ‘health inequalities’. Apparently everyone in Manchester are finding that their teeth are falling out at an alarming rate.

There will be ‘local consultations’ and according to the Health Orc "I don't want this (fluoridation) to be carried out in areas where there has been no consultation whatsoever,"

He doesn’t say whether the views of the consultation will be taken into account though.

And how will the judgement be made as to whether an area has assented to the introduction of fluoride into their water supply.

What if 51% of an areas population agrees to the plan? Doesn’t this mean that the remaining 49% are essentially having medication forced upon them?

I was under the impression that everyone had to consent to being given medication.

That said there is a political logic to this. As our masters have spectacularly failed to provide the promised access to and availability of NHS dentists perhaps they are hoping that this will make some of the problem go away.

And where does it stop? Statins added to prevent heart problems. Omega 3 added to help in the meeting of University admission targets, Beta blockers added in the run up to elections or during a run on a bank?

And of course the long term effects of fluoridation are still unclear. But lets not worry about that and lets go ahead and pump everyone full of a poison anyway.

It’s easier to do that than expecting people to take responsibility for their own diets and to find out how to brush their and their children’s teeth adequately.

3 comments:

William Gruff said...

I remember a discussion on compulsory fluoridation in which I made the point that compulsion is nothing more than forced medication. The response was an almost hysterical 'fluoride isn't a medicine', to which I responded that anything is a medicine if it is used to control a perceived medical problem. The point was so at odds with the agenda of the compulsion nazis that they were unable to grasp it, and simply repeated, with that exasperated insistence that only those who see dissent as insanity know, that fluoride 'isn't a medicine'.

Anonymous said...

...perhaps Ivanol to help repair all the leaky pipes and Viagra to rejuvenate the infra-structure ...could save billions.

Don't knock it ...it's the fluoridated water leaching the lead out of the pipes, that makes Hookie the man he is today.

Liz Hinds said...

I heard someone say on PM on Radio 4 that no-one will have fluoridation forced upon them. I assume from that that we will have indiviudal water filters in all our homes so we will be able to choose whether or not we want fluoride. I don't see how else they can do it!

I don't want it. Our lovely soft Welsh water would be spoiled. All because - what did the man say on the radio - the people who need it are too stupid to take care of their teeth so we must do it for them. Or something like that.