Press Release

Source - NAMAF - North and Midlands Against Fluoridation & The National Register of Children with Dental Fluorosis

Fluoridation in UK is now illegal

Campaigners will lobby Directors of the Board for the newly formed Consumer Council for Water ( known as CCWater)

Venue : Consumer Council for Water - Victoria Square House, Victoria Sq.

Birmingham, B2 4AJ

Time: 1st November 2005 10.00am - 12.00 o clock

New EU legislation - DIRECTIVE 2004/27/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 31 March 2004 amending Directive 2001/83/EC (see 9 below) has an impact on all existing fluoridation schemes which currently affect 6 million people in the UK who are forced to drink, cook with and bathe in fluoridated water.

All ingestible substances are either foods or medicines, when fluoride - in ANY form - is added to water with the intent to medicate then that water becomes a medicine, and must comply with the regulations relating to the registration, licensing, sale and administration of medicines.

This is now an absolute requirement, and enforceable under EU legislation, the UK Government's dispensation for silicofluorides to be used to medicate dental caries is without substance.

Douglas Cross - Environmental Analyst - EurProBiol,CBiol,MIBiol,BSc also comments

'From 31st October '05 it will be illegal to to use silicofluorides with the intent to medicate. Nomination of silicofluorides by the UK government for fluoridation does not constitute the issue of a marketing authorisation which is mandatory for any substance used with the intent of treating or preventing any medical condition.'

Professor Vyvyan Howard, toxico-pathologist in the Centre for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Ulster said "I am glad that there now appears to be a legal framework to test the dubious practice of mass medication via the water supply. There are so many unanswered questions relating to the addition of hexafluorosilicic acid to the water supply, particularly to the unborn and infants, that it is my personal and professional opinion that the practice should cease until the basic toxicological research required has been performed".

Cllr. Susan King - Secretary of NAMAF is delighted that the new EC legislation will bring to an end the deliberate pollution of water supplies with hexafluorosilicic acid at the rate of

1 part per million. For the last 60 years fluoride has been condoned as the 'protected pollutant' with unknown effects on our general health and the health of the environment.

She added

'There is now compelling evidence from the US that fluorides are carcinogenic linking them with bone cancer affecting young males. Water suppliers are not pharmacists! Its totally unacceptable to add a known cumulative protoplasmic poison to our tapwater. The fluoride dosing equipment must be switched off now!'

For more information please contact:

Cllr. Susan King - Secretary NAMAF Mobile Tel: (07976) 255364

(01455) 828778 e mail : [email protected] or Margaret Cooper - Co-ordinator National Register of Children with Dental Fluorosis Mobile Tel: (07930) 810630 or Tel: (0115) 9526548

Notes for Editors

1) Press release on first Consumer Council for Water meeting - Birmingham Nov 1st 2005

http://www2.watervoice.org.uk/aptrix/ofwat/publish.nsf/Content/ccwater605

Water supplies top the agenda at first CCWater meeting in public

2) DWI - Press release on formation of Consumer Council for Water - CCWater ( replacing Water Voice) http://www.dwi.gov.uk/consumer/ccwater.shtm

3) Doug Cross - analysis of implications of Codified Pharmaceutical Directive in relation to EC definition of a food.

The medicinal regulations are essentially unchanged from the wording of the 2001 Codified Pharmaceuticals Directive. However, the Food Directive has more recently been updated, and now provides additional confirmation of the status of 'normal'

drinking water, and therefore of fluoridated water as a medicine.

Remember, any ingestible substance is either a food or a medicine.

Note the use of the phrase 'Water is ingested directly or indirectly like other foods,' in section 6 of the Preamble. This is also saying that water is a food, like any other. The key ruling is the European Court of Justice's decision that the intent to medicate renders any chemical so used a medicinal substance.

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'REGULATION (EC) No 178/2002 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 28 January2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety'

Article 2

Definition of 'food' For the purposes of this Regulation, 'food' (or 'foodstuff') means any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans. 'Food' includes drink, chewing gum and any substance, including water, intentionally incorporated into the food during its manufacture, reparation or treatment. It includes water after the point of compliance as defined in Article 6 of Directive 98/83/EC and without prejudice to the requirements of Directives 80/778/EEC and 98/83/EC

Preamble (6) Water is ingested directly or indirectly like other foods, thereby contributing to the overall exposure of a consumer to ingested substances, including chemical and microbiological contaminants. However, as the quality of water intended for human consumption is already controlled by Council Directives 80/778/EEC (5) and 98/83/EC (6), it suffices to consider water after the point of compliance referred to in Article 6 of Directive 98/83/EC.

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So, the quality of drinking water is covered by the EU food and water regulations as long as it does not contain any substance added with the intent to medicate any medical condition. Therefore, the presence of calcium fluoride in drinking water, as long as it is derived from natural sources, does not alter the status of drinking water as a food whose quality is regulated under the Water Quality Regulations.

However, immediately any form of fluoride, whether 'natural' or artificial, and including those fluorides that do have medicinal Marketing Authorisations, is added to water with the intent to prevent or reduce dental caries, that water ceases to be a food and becomes a medicine.

Neither authorized fluorides (potassium and sodium fluoride) nor any form of silicofluoride have Marketing Authorizations under the EU or UK legislations. Their use with the intent to medicate is therefore illegal - and absolutely so - from the end of this month.

So any authority faced with this illegal administration of an unlicensed medicine as from that date can, and should, apply for an injunction against any water company actively fluoridating its product, or proposing to do so. This action can also be taken against any Strategic Health Authority proposing to order a water company to carry out this illegal act.

4) Latest news on Water Fluoridation - including fluoride/bone cancer link

http://www.fluoridealert.org

Fluoride Action Network - Prof Paul Connett - Chemistry Dept, St Lawrence University, New York

5) TIME MAGAZINE Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118379,00.html

Not in My Water Supply

It hardens teeth and prevents cavities, but 60 years after it began, fluoridation is meeting new resistance By MARGOT ROOSEVELT / BELLINGHAM

6) British Fluoridation Society http://www.bfsweb.org/

7) British Dental Association www.bda-dentistry.org.uk/ - see Fluoride links page for details of how to find York Review on Water Fluoridation, Medical Research Council report on water fluoridation etc

8) Fluoride Helpline - Manchester http://www.fluorideinformation.com

9) DIRECTIVE 2004/27/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 31 March 2004 amending Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use Article 1 Directive 2001/83/EC is hereby amended as follows: 1) Article 1 shall be amended as follows:

(b) point 2 shall be replaced by the following:

'2. Medicinal product: (a) Any substance or combination of substances presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease in human beings; or (b) Any substance or combination of substances which may be used in or administered to human beings either with a view to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action, or to making a medical diagnosis.'