A number of Local Goverment Councils in Australia have been unable to supply free fluoride supplements to the public, due to an Australia wide shortage, so residents should be heartened by the knowledge that they are not dosing their children daily with an established equivocal carcinogen which is as poisonous as lead and only slightly less so than arsenic.

The US Food and Drug Administration has never approved fluoride supplements and the World Health Organisation list of Essential Medicines is being reviewed in 2005 with sodium fluoride listed for removal.

The Australian dental researchers Amfield and Spencer reported no significant difference in the decay rates of permanent teeth of children drinking fluoridated compared to unfluoridated water (Arnfreld JM & Spencer AJ (2004) Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 32 (4) 283).

Silico fluorides used as fluoridating agents contain lead and carcinogenic arsenic and studies by Masters and Coplan, (1999) show an association between the use of fluorosilicic acid (and its sodium salt) in fluoridated water and an increase uptake of lead into children's blood. In fact Roger D Masters (research professor of Government Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA) reported: The specific chemical compounds most frequently used to fluoridate water in the USA, fluorosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride have never been adequately tested.

Epidemiological studies show that, where these silicofluorides are added to public water, children are significantly more likely to absorb lead in their environment from lead paint in old houses, lead levels in water, etc. (Masters etal, Neurotoxicology (200)23: 101 +Int.i. Env Stud. (1999) 56:435).

A search on the internet under the search term "silicofluoride" reveals a number of disturbing articles in relation to harmful effects. For new evidence of potential serious harm from fluoride ingestion (see www. fluoridealert.org/limeback.htm) for a summary.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of properly done scientific studies warning about the short and long term dangers of fluoridation and the evidence is gathering of the disastrous effects of water fluoridation on all living things.

So what is amazing is the fact that the professionals promoting fluoride, in one form or another, seem unaware of any of these studies, or choose to ignore them even though they are conducted by scientists with qualifications equal to or even superior to themselves, Studies have also shown that with constant ingestion silicofluorides are extremely cumulative, cannot be eliminated, and have severely debilitating and disabling effects particularly as the victims approach old age.

It can also precipitate a dramatic increase in an otherwise rare and fatal form of bone cancer in adolescent boys, even after relatively short periods of exposure.

Safe to put in drinking water? I think not!