Lithgow Info

Dear Councillors,

By now, most of you have probably decided whether or not to add fluoride to Lithgow's Drinking Water.
I have no doubt you are sick of hearing about it. Spare a thought for the poor people who get sick from drinking it!

Please reconsider the following points:

1. The members of our community that fluoride may have a adverse affect on. There may be more people than you realize. NSW Health will not tell you this.
People affected by Allergies video:

Most Dentists will not tell you this, after all they are the same ones that treat dental fluorosis with tooth polishing and porcelain veneers to cover up the effects. Costly procedures placing more pressure on our dental health system.
It would be interesting to see how many of these procedures are undertaken compared to actual tooth decay in fluoridated areas.

There are some exceptions to above though eg: Bio Compatible Dentistry takes us beyond drilling and filling and addresses the relationships of dentistry to the rest of the body - This is from Dr Robert Gammal BDS FACNEM(dent) and Dr Aushi Patel BDS & Associates - Sydney - http://www.bcd.com.au/

2. How many people who suffer adverse affects (dental fluorosis, allergies, diabetics, kidney dialysis etc..) is an acceptable risk number in our population? 10%? 20% 30%?

3. At the Public Meeting after asking a question about children swallowing toothpaste, I was led to believe by our NSW Health representatives that this was completely safe, in fact this was repeated a number of times. There seems to be a lot conflicting advice on this and especially from Government, Dentistry, Parenting and University web sites in Australia; In fact all say "Children should spit out and not swallow the toothpaste. Adult supervision required". Why is Western Sydney Area Health refuting this?

• http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=301&id=2521
• http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/teeth_and_teeth_care_-_cyh.html
• http://www.dentalcaresouthperth.com.au/faqs.html
• http://www.dentistry.usyd.edu.au/people/Wendell%20Evans
• http://www.mlccentredental.com.au/preventative.php

Whether you are for or against water fluoridation, will YOU as a Councillor tell parents it is safe to allow their children to swallow fluoride toothpaste, and that it is safe to mix fluoridated water with baby formula?

4. Why did Western Sydney Area Health feel it necessary to manipulate the poll to increase the number of yes votes on https://lithgow-info.com/news/16-wsahshitsthepoll.html leading up to the Public Meeting on Monday night? Was it because the poll was not going in their favour? It certainly does not give me a great deal of confidence in believing any other figures they are quoting.. are they manipulating these as well?

5. Is it true that children from Sydney are being treated for dental procedures in Lithgow Hospital? Were these patients included in the graphs shown in the presentation on Monday night at the Public Meeting? A Lithgow Nursing Sister currently employed at Lithgow Hospital also questions the graphs shown for this reason.

6. Fluoridation will not be affective with continued consumption of sugar, lack of oral hygiene. Mass medication will not alter the rate of tooth decay only public health education will do this. Baby bottle teeth as shown in the pictures on the presentation is more likely to have occurred from the consumption of too much sugar in the diet than from lack of fluoride. Why did John Irving have to be asked this question 3 times at the meeting?

7. Is it true that the same presentation (including the same pictures of children's decayed teeth) as was shown in both Mudgee and Gosford? According to witnesses from these areas who were present at the Public Meeting on Monday night, the presentation was almost identical even down to the percentages on the graphs comparing nearby areas (only the names of the towns changed)?

8. The Public Meeting was not well advertised ie. a small notification in the Council Column of the Mercury and the Mercury Saint column. There has been no real attempt to engage the public in open discussion. Mr Mayor, while listening to your Radio Interview with ABC, you asked as many representatives as possible from the Medical Practices and Dental Practices to please come along and participate in the Public Meeting. Why did you not ask as many people as possible from Lithgow to come along? It would have been nice for the people of Lithgow to hear that from you, instead of me.

9. Please do not ignore what is happening overseas and Independent research undertaken both in Australia and Overseas on the effects of fluoride on other parts of the body besides teeth. There have been mistakes made before eg: lead petrol, lead paint, toys etc. mercury found in fish, thalidomide (this was once considered safe), DDT, Asbestos just to name a few.... Mercury in amalgam fillings in teeth, last time I visited the dentist for a broken tooth, he was more worried about replacing the only 2 small amalgam fillings I had in my mouth than the fixing the broken tooth, why? because amalgam fillings had been linked with mercury poisoning he said. So what may have been considered safe 30 years ago, is not necessarily safe now.
http://www.sustainabilitycentre.com.au/MD_FN_article.pdf

10. Consider the poison you will be adding to the drinking water, even at 1ppm this is still too much. Hydrofluorosilicic Acid - Hydrofluoric Acid, Phosphorus, Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Radian, Cadmium. This definitely is not natural! All of these chemicals have been known to build up in the body.

• Will we see litigation as is happening in the USA? - eg http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/fluoride-osteosarcoma/fluoride-exposure.html
• Mercury - http://www.zip.com.au/~rgammal/IsAmalgamSafe.htm
• Mercury - http://www.ericdavisdental.com/mercurynew.htm
• Lead - http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosphere/airquality/publications/leadfs.html
• Cadmium - http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Cadmium?OpenDocument

11. How much fluoride is already in our water? Is it true that Mt Piper and Wang Power Stations pump 480 tonnes of fluoride into the air each year, and that has doubled from 240 tonnes p.a. since 2000. A report by Connell Wagner in June 2007 for the modification of Mt Piper Ash & Brine disposal said that due to higher salinity in water because of the drought, fluoride levels in brine have increased six times from an average 21 mg/L (1mg/L = 1 ppm) in 1999 to an average of 126 mg/L in 2006. Does this brine leach into groundwater aquifers or end up in the Cox's River? The same report says Fluoride levels in fly-ash are 75 mg/kg (75ppm?) dry weight of fly-ash. Are you failing in your duty of care to take local factors into consideration?

If you are serious about representing, gaining the views of the community this should be put to a referendum at the next Lithgow Council Elections.

However, I believe that NSW Health does not encourage this. After seeing how their representatives perform when questioned about legitimate concerns, and their bullying tactics, I can see why.

Regards

Debra Morris
https://www.lithgow-info.com