A Dutch doctor who claims his research helped to have fluoride removed from public water supplies in the Netherlands has warned that the Government's insistence on fluoridating public water supplies could directly cause cancers and other diseases. Dr Hans Moolenburgh's research in Holland found that up to 4 per cent of water-users experienced health problems following the addition of fluoride to the Amsterdam water supplies in 1972.
The problems included gastrointestinal disorders, mouth sores, rashes, headaches and forms of arthritis. Follow-up research in 1993 revealed significant increases in the incidence of cancer, arthritis and neurological complaints, he said.
Ireland is the only EU state to implement a fluoridation policy, although water supplies are fluoridated in parts of Spain and in a number of British cities. The British government plans to extend water fluoridation and, as part of the process, has commissioned an independent inquiry into fluoride safety.
In the Republic, public water supplies have been fluoridated since a 1964 law empowered the minister for the environment to direct local authorities to do this. As a result, 73 per cent of the Irish population receives fluoridated water.
Fluoride is a toxin which is added to water at a rate of 1 mg per litre to reduce tooth decay. However, Dr Moolenburgh said research had shown that fluoride in water was ineffective in preventing tooth decay. Following the prohibition of water fluoridation in Holland in 1976, the authorities continued to supplement the diet of children aged up to six years with daily fluoride tablets.
This policy was abandoned last year, he said, when the authorities concluded that ingested fluoride was ineffective in protecting teeth, and only had a positive benefit when it came directly into contact with them.
Dr Moolenburgh's claims were challenged yesterday by UCC's Professor of Oral Health and Development, Dr Denis O'Mullane. "The World Health Organisation had declared fluoride to be safe. It harms nobody and it does a lot of good," he said.
Repeated studies around the world had found that fluoride in water reduced dental decay. "A lot more people in Ireland have their natural teeth now than at any time since statistics began and a lot of this success can be attributed to water fluoridation," he said.
A 1995 Southern Health Board study of teeth damaged by caries in five-year-olds found an average of 2.3 teeth damaged in non-fluoridated areas, but only 1.1 where fluoridated water was available. A 1997 Midland Health Board study found 2.9 damaged teeth in non-fluoridated areas and just 1.7 in fluoridated areas.
Dr Moolenburgh said less serious symptoms experienced by his patients after fluoride was added to the Amsterdam supplies in 1972 cleared up quickly after they ceased ingesting fluoridated water. More serious problems such as arthritis of the finger, knee and back joints only eased after several months of fluoride-free water.
People who were used to ingesting fluoride would not experience such obvious symptoms, he said, but their immune systems would have to work harder. "But a certain number of more sensitive people will develop one or a number of diseases as a result of ingesting fluoride," he said.
Just two public water supplies in Northern Ireland are fluoridated. A Northern Ireland Council Against Fluoridation spokesman, Mr Walter Graham, said there was no logic to fluoridating public water supplies.
Dr Moolenburgh compared water fluoridation to the authorities adding laxatives to a city's water supplies just because a few people were constipated. He will be featured in a Leargas special on water fluoridation on RTE Television on September 14th.