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Letters.
Oct 2002: Chris Holdcroft
The following
letter was published in the Probe in October 2002:
The MRC Report on Water
Fluoridation
The
York Review of water fluoridation, which is more
notorious for its omissions than it is for its
findings, concluded more high quality research was
required to understand the effects of
‘supplementing’ industrial waste into public water
supplies – namely hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6).
Unfortunately, the Government has decided to place
this burden upon the shoulders of a Medical Research
Council ‘Working Group’. This meant that any chance
of TRUE impartiality, something else missing from
the York Review, quite literally disappeared.
Despite the temporary appearance of one
self-proclaimed anti-fluoridationist, the Working
Group was made up of a number of prominent
pro-fluoride lobby (“the Lobby”) members.
My
only experiences of dealing with the MRC’s dental
experts in the past is to be, (1) told by one
representative that he hates all anti-fluoridationists
- and he then slammed the telephone down and, (2)
another saying he thought anyone who opposed the
measure was mad. This is hardly a sound basis for an
impartial investigation. But all of this is not
surprising as there are well-placed elements of the
Lobby in both Government and the dental / scientific
community, all of whom seem to think they are always
right and everyone who opposes them is crazy.
As
for the MRC’s Final Report, it contains the usual
mix of Lobby deceptions, half-truths and misplaced
assumptions. One of the worst is the perpetuated lie
of the Burk-Yiamouyiannis cancer study. Still the
Lobby persists with the lie that adjustments were
not made for age, sex and race in this study.
Adjustments were made to the initial study and still
there was found a link between fluoridated
communities and increased cancer incidence.
Regardless of the quality of this work, the Lobby
obviously still feels it necessary to resort to
deception.
Another contentious point is the MRC’s claims about
the efficacy of fluoridation. Again, it is another
example of the Lobby twisting the truth about the
York Review's findings. This is also not forgetting
that the claimed benefits are based on poor studies.
For
further information, please visit: *MRC
Critiques (*edited 6/10/2003).
Yours sincerely
C
Holdcroft
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