FAN Bulletin 1021

December 20, 2008

Dear Supporter,

Since the early months of this year our friends in Queensland have been reeling from (unelected) Premier Anna Bligh’s forcing of fluoridation on the whole state, even though for over 50 years communities there have rejected the practice whver and whenever it has been proposed. See Ailsa Boyden’s historical overview below.

But over the last few weeks it is becoming clear that citizens have been getting really organized. Law suits are in the works and on the political front it is now widely believed that Bligh’s draconian efforts have overstepped the mark and are putting her re-election into some doubt.  Supporting that view is a quote in today’s paper (The Courier Mail, Dec 20) from the opposition leader Lawrence Springborg, who is clearly keeping his powder dry on this issue. He is quoted on p.32 of the paper:

“Mr. Springborg said he would also consult with communities before fluoride was added and revisit the issue where it was already being added to water supplies.  Where it hasn’t gone in we would certainly be consulting with them, he said.   We haven’t got a policy on this at the moment but we would need to discuss in the areas where it is in about how we would clarify that. Mr. Springborg said that there were international examples where fluoride had been removed from water supplies and this would be considered in line with community support. In Europe there are a dozen places which have taken it out through freedom of choice, he said.”

FAN’s FUNDRAISER

As of 11 am today, we have raised $970 towards our Super Angel’s matching challenge to raise $2000 by Tuesday Dec 23.

Our current total is $15,609 from 127 donors. Remember this will jump by another $2000 if we can raise another $1030 by next Tuesday. Please help us to reach this mini-goal.

Making a secure tax-deductible donation online is very easy and quick to do.  Simply click here https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=5061. Even the smallest donation means that you can own part of next year’s action.  If you prefer, you can send a check, in US$, payable to FAN to:  Paul Connett, 82 Judson Street, Canton NY 13617.

Thank you.

Paul Connett

Fluoridation: The Battle for Queensland

By Ailsa Boyden

I should begin by telling readers I did not set out opposed to water fluoridation: I gave fluoride tablets to my children for many years and took them myself (pregnancy and breast feeding).  However, after hearing snippets about fluoride being harmful, I began to research the subject and found that water fluoridation is a fraud (see The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson who is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist and a former BBC producer - there may still be some revealing insights into the book at www.FluorideAlert.org ).
 
The state of Queensland used to have legislation that allowed councils to fluoridate provided they held a referendum on the issue.  There was a clause whereby the people’s will, expressed via referendum, could not be overturned by local or state government.  The Queensland city of Mackay held two referendums on water fluoridation.  Both resulted in a majority NO vote against the practice.
 
On April 23  2005, a private member’s bill, seeking to have fluoridation mandated for Queenslanders, was defeated (6 to 71) in the Q’ld Parliament.  
The bill was introduced by John-Paul Langbroek who is a dentist, member of the opposition Liberal Party, which only had 6 members. All 6 liberal voted for the bill, while all members of the members of the Labor Party and a single Independent member voted against.
 
In October 2005, the then Q’ld Labor Premier Peter Beattie announced that $6 million was available for councils who wished to fluoridate their public water supplies.  He said the law which makes a referendum mandatory before councils can introduce fluoride to water would be changed to make the referendum optional.  Beattie said, it was time for a change and the Government might act after five years if Queensland did not reach Victorian levels, where 77 per cent of people drink fluoridated water.
 
Beattie wanted all water supplies catering for populations of more than 5,000 people fluoridated (42 in all).
 
Before Xmas 2005, I saw Beattie on TV almost angrily saying words to the effect that he’d take water off councils and fluoridate it himself if councils don’t start complying.  This was only about 2 months after he’d given councils 5 years to act on this issue!
 
Beattie resigned from the premiership suddenly in late 2007
 
Beattie’s successor, Anna Bligh, almost immediately announced she was going to mandate water fluoridation.
 
On March 13 2008 Queensland’s Fluoridation Bill 2008 became law.  It mandated water fluoridation for all Q’ld communities catering for populations greater than 1,000 with provision for applications to be made to fluoridate water supplies catering for populations less than 1,000.
 
This bill provides legal protection so that no one who has anything to do with water fluoridation can be sued as a result of anyone being harmed from it.
 
This mandatory bill was brought into being despite  a) Every Labor Party politician earlier that year having voted against the private member’s bill that sought to mandate fluoridation for Q’ld; and b) Despite a highly qualified medical practitioner, two scientists (one a medical scientist; the other with a doctorate in biological sciences) and at least one other person meeting on February 12, 2008 with Premier Bligh, her Minister for Health and her Chief Health Officer and her Chief Dental Officer and

    i) Informing the premier that her government was using doctored dental statistics to promote water fluoridation;
    ii) Presenting documented evidence of the harmfulness of fluoride; and
    iii) Presenting affidavits showing there are already people in non-fluoridated areas in Q’ld who have toxic levels of fluoride in their blood, etc.

The day this information was presented, there was a protest rally outside parliament (truck with amplifier, placards, etc.) and Premier Bligh walked out and spoke to the people from the back of the truck.
 
There had been meaningful protests for some time building up to this public rally including such an enormous volume of emails being sent to all Q’ld state parliamentarians that we heard that extra staff had to be employed to cope with them (no verification of this).  Unfortunately Qld’s major daily newspaper supports water fluoridation - and Australia’s major newscaster (ABC TV and ABC Radio) has a pro-fluoridation bias.  We have to look to regional newspapers to get letters published and they don’t circulate statewide.  However, there is the occasional bonus such as Greg Cary’s Morning Show on Radio 4BC (Brisbane).  Greg, I was informed by his show’s producer, carefully researches subjects before voicing opinions on them.
 
Only a few independent state politicians voted against the mandatory fluoridation bill.  Even the then National Party who voted in 2005 against fluoridation voted for it.  The grapevine suggested that this was because the National and Liberal Parties were negotiating at the time to amalgamate (this has since happened) and if the Liberals voted for the practice and the Nationals voted against it then the media might have used that to drive a bigger wedge between the two parties.
 
There is great pressure still being placed on Premier Bligh to cease expanding the fluoridation program.  A second leaflet drop is currently being conducted in her electorate and on November 15 there was an anti-fluoride anti-recycled sewage (for drinking water) public meeting held in her electorate followed the next day by a similar meeting at the Gold Coast, which is also in south-east Q’ld.
 
As an indication of how political and non-scientific the fluoride issue is I’ll relate the following about the Gold Coast meeting that was held in a theatre hired from the Bond University.  The following was alleged:

Security guards wouldn’t allow the invited media into the theatre.
The Chancellor ordered all flyers relating to the meeting be taken off student notice boards.
When a meeting attendee pointed his personal video at a speaker he was figuratively jumped on by guards and prevented from filming.  The meeting came to a halt while several calls were made to the university, a meeting organizer announced she had paid a deposit for the hire of the theatre and the security guards eventually backed off but the chap was too shaken to use his camera.
Within about 15 minutes of the security guards leaving the theatre the air-conditioner went off.
I think I was told that the power-point facility wouldn’t work.
Catering had to be done by the university (fair enough).  It arrived late and no hot water, etc.
 
The Australian Dental Association (Q’ld Branch) has been a rabid promoter of water fluoridation.  In 2006 an ADAQ member applied to the Minister for Health for $200,000 to promote water fluoridation via a letter-writing campaign:  petitions, stickers, T-shirts, etc.  (I have data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to back this up.)  This application was approved.
 
In a Q’ld Health (Q’ld Government) Ministerial briefing note for approval (obtained under the Freedom of Information Act) in which the $200,000 was recommended, the acting director of the Qld Health Oral Health Unit wrote,

“The ADAQ will also be able to undertake campaigns which include strategies and initiatives which may not be seen as appropriate for a Government department to undertake eg the promotion of letter writing campaigns.”

Please see http://www2.fluoridealert.org/Alert/Australia/Premier-in-line-for-more-water-torture for an excellent fluoride article relating to Queensland that was published a few weeks ago in The Australian.  The author, Ross Fitzgerald, is a broadcaster, writer and professor.
 
We intend to continue the fight and someone is currently preparing some legal action against someone in government using an angle that I suspect has not been covered in the mandatory legislation.  
 
Finally, Premier Bligh intended forcing south east Queenslanders to drink recycled sewage (instead of piping it to industry) by having it added to the Wivenhoe Dam. This has received massive opposition and opponents of both the recycled water program and the fluoridation program are now working together.

Many are angry about Premier Bligh’s dictatorial stance on both issues.  Captain Bligh of “Mutiny of the Bounty” fame is her Great G G G (4 greats) Grandfather and is alleged to have been dictatorial!  He later became Governor of New South Wales in Australia in the early 1800s and “At dusk on January 26, 1808, the NSW Corps, urged on by most of the wealthy inhabitants of Sydney, marched up Bridge Street to Government House and deposed Governor William Bligh…”