I signed this petition back in Jun 2011. For four reasons.
1) I believe it is medically inappropriate to medicate me without personally assessing me for a) my need based on the number of teeth that need protecting b) my risk of developing the disease based on dietary and lifestyle choices c) my current exposure to the drug from both intended and other unintended sources d) the correct daily amount for me to consume based on those three factors plus my body weight and metabolism and e) how both they and i can control my daily intake so as to prevent over and/or under medicating.
2) Medical negligence aside (and even if this method of delivering medicine was one day proved to be medically sound), I believe it is unethical to medicate other Irish residents for this disease without also having their individual, informed and on-going consent to being treated.
3) Even if it was a medically sound practice, and the particular substance they were using was actually pharmaceutical grade (neither contaminated nor listed as a hazardous substance by the EU), and even if I and every single Irish resident had been personally assessed for both need and consent to being treated, I believe it is morally wrong to also treat every visiting tourist (as well as those living abroad) for this disease via their consumption of Irish beverages and foodstuffs grown, fed and/or prepared using fluoridated water.
4) The Department of Health have never satisfactorily explained why they have (apparently arbitrarily) deemed tooth decay to be such a serious issue – relative to other conditions we might also contract or develop during our lives – that we all need to be prophylactically treated for it regardless of our consent or need (including babies and the elderly who may not have a single exposed tooth in their heads!). For example, if it’s medically and ethically sound to try and prevent a disease by putting something in the water supply, why aren’t they also putting in calcium to prevent osteoporosis? Or something like aspirin to keep our blood thin and thereby reduce our risk of having a stroke? Or putting in vaccinating substances to reduce our risk of whooping cough, measles, mumps etc?
And if you’re already thinking “but they don’t do that because of the danger of some people having bad reactions or developing other problems as a result”… then I suggest you ask yourself why you – and they – have not yet applied that same criteria to fluoridation…
