Anti-fluoridation forces are
on the march in increasingly
reactionary Queensland. Earlier
this year it was
stated that a large
number of Queensland councils
had voted against fluoride
in drinking water . Fluoridation of water supplies was mandated state-wide by the previous Queensland Labor government in 2008, well behind other states and territories
which
had fluoridation for up to 50 years in some areas .
Then in came the Newman Government which
gave councils the “ freedom of choice”
to say whether or
not they wanted fluoridation of their water.
The
Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek , with a background in dentistry , was reported as saying that councils taking fluoride out of drinking water
were “making a terrible
mistake”. And Health
Minister Lawrence Springborg
is believed to support
fluoridation of drinking water . You have to wonder
what Queensland politicians
drink before they
make major community decisions
.
Why a government would leave such an important community issue as this to the vote of individual local councils , where some of the utterances and performances do not inspire , with internal squabbling and calls in some areas to sack the civic leaders and bring in the administrator , defies belief .
In
the l960s there
was widespread debate
about whether or
not it was
good for the
nation . There were dire
predictions about the consequences of
adding it to the
water supply. An
inspired 1969 article
by Brian Head
in the Melbourne publication
Broadside , edited by toothy Pete Steedman , carried the above
cartoon by a gifted
person , well known to
Little Darwin readers ,
Peter Burleigh, who kept the
Tooth Fairy busy during his late teens .
The
article was headed
ANYONE FOR A
LOBOTOMY ? OR HOW I STOPPED
WORRYING AND LEARNED
TO LOVE FLUORIDATION . Head opened wide by
asking if readers
spent hours at night in bed wondering if
fluoridated water would make them
bald, anaemic, sterile and cause a
chemical lobotomy of the brain . Despite assurances
from medical and dental
services in
Australia, USA and Britain , many groups
claimed terrible things would
result as a result of fluoridation . Royal Commissions in New Zealand
and Tasmania had concluded that many of the arguments used
against fluoridation were a farrago of “ chemical nonsense “ belonging to the criminal side of
medical quackery. Some opponents claimed
fluoridation led to mongolism
of babies, mouth ulcers, brittle and
crumbly teeth , goitre , osteosclerosis , boils , constipation , deafness, bed wetting and miscarriages.
Continuing his probe, Head wrote that there were claims
that fluoride caused listlessness , but also over - indulgence in sex and alcohol... And for those
wishing to fail their National Service medical, fluoridation
is said to
promote heart and
kidney disease , and feminisation
of men .
