EASTLEIGH MP APPEALS TO ENVIRONMENT AGENCY ON MASS FLUORIDATION (Eastleigh Liberal Democrats)

Eastleigh Liberal Democrats <enquiries@eastleighlibdems.org.uk>

EASTLEIGH MP APPEALS TO ENVIRONMENT AGENCY ON MASS FLUORIDATION

March 10, 2009 12:00 PM

Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne has made a last-ditch bid to stop the mass fluoridation of water going ahead by appealing for the Environment Agency to look at its impact on local water courses and rivers.

Mr Huhne said that there should be a proper Environmental Impact Assessment of the decision by the South Central Strategic Health Authority (NHS) to order Southern Water to add fluoride to the local water supply.

"I have written to the chairman of the Environment Agency, Lord Chris Smith, to ask if it will investigate this matter and come to a clear view about the environmental risks of adding more than 100 tons a year of fluoride to local water supplies," said Chris Huhne.

"Many local residents rightly do not want to take the health authority's decision lying down, as it flies in the face of nearly three quarters of the responses to the consultation and all the local councils and MPs who expressed a view. It is frankly high-handed.

"No-one doubts that teeth need better care, but the obvious alternative is more NHS dentists not mass medication where there are contested benefits and ill-understood risks."