Minister accepts Open Letter with 27 questions from Hot Press

Hot Press journalist Adrienne Murphy, along with the self-styled 'Girl Against Fluoride', Aisling FitzGibbon, personally delivered a set of 27 questions in the form of an Open Letter to Junior Minister for Health, Alex White – the Minister in charge of Ireland's fluoridation policy – at the Department of Health yesterday, Wednesday, March 20th.

Murphy posed a series of questions to Minister White outside the Department offices, before the Minister accepted a copy of the Open Letter, which is published in full in the current issue of Hot Press. The Minister agreed to respond to the series of questions regarding the mandatory fluoridation of Ireland's water supply and went on to commit to sitting down to address the issues raised.

Currently, the Irish population is being mass medicated through fluoridation of the water supply, with every citizen being forced to consume a substance widely regarded as a neurotoxin, depending only on the quantity consumed.

In the Hot Press report, which calls for an independent review of the current policy, Adrienne Murphy argues that the authorities in Ireland are negligent in their failure to carry out the research necessary to test the effects of the country's fluoridation policy as envisaged by Section 6 of the 1960 Fluoridation Act. Fluoridation is a policy increasingly believed to pose avoidable risks in relation to the health of men, women and especially children.

"The Minister, Alex White, was appointed to the role only recently," Adrienne Murphy said, "so he has no culpability whatsoever in relation to what has happened in the past. That should hopefully mean that he is open to completely re-examining the Irish health authorithy's policy of compulsory fluoridation."

Ireland is the only EU country which engages in mandatory national water fluoridation.

98% of Europe does not fluoridate the water supply on health and ethical grounds. In no other regard is freedom of choice in medical issues taken away from Irish citizens in a one-size fits all basis – and yet there is an apparent desire to continue with fluoridation in Ireland without doing the research necessary to properly measure its effects on Irish citizens.

"The Government says fluoride is good for our teeth – or more specifically, apparently, for those of the less well-off. But do our policy makers have any evidence that fluoridation isn't harming us in other ways?" Adrienne Murphy, writer of the Hot Press articles asks. "One might think it better to teach school children about the importance of brushing their teeth rather than risking everyone's health by putting fluoride in the water. Instead, Ireland is systemically medicating everyone without regard for the side-effects and the fluoride is getting into every part of our bodies – not just our teeth!"

"This is a major public health issue, which Adrienne Murphy has highlighted in a series of articles in Hot Press," the magazine's editor Niall Stokes states. "It is important now, that the questions which have been posed in Hot Press, should be answered not in a defensive way but rather in a spirit of open-ness to all of the available information – and especially with an awareness of the ethical issues. In that regard, the fact that the Minister is fresh to the brief is undoubtedly a good thing."

Adrienne Murphy was joined outside the Department of Health by the woman who has dubbed herself "Fluoride Girl".

"My own experience in dealing with depression by eliminating fluoride from what I eat and drink has convinced me of the huge importance of addressing this issue," says Aisling Fitzgibbon, who has been running the Girl Against Fluoride campaign against mandatory fluoridation. "Whatever the counter arguments might be, when we don't have properly researched evidence to say that fluoridation is safe, the precautionary principle must come into play – and as an EU member Ireland are obliged to follow this principle."

The full set of 27 questions is published in an article in the current issue of Hot Press. Aisling Fitzgibbon is also interviewed about her experiences. Order this issue