Step 1 READ THIS FIRST
Every box within the 9-step process detailed in the INTRODUCTION, contains information to help you to (1) expand your knowledge on water fluoridation and (2) fill out the Consultation Questionnaire. It’s important to send as many well-educated responses, based on truth, as possible.
What you need to do:
– Follow the 9-step process listed in the INTRODUCTION in a logical, step-by-step approach;
· Digest as much of the information as you can from each blue box;
· Assess the downloaded questionnaire to see how much you can prepare beforehand;
· Fill out the online questionnaire (which can be accessed from the purple box at the bottom on the blue box page) with your cogent responses and uploaded files;
· Tell your friends and family about this PCWF and then send them the address of our PCWF Support Page – https://newfc.org.uk/blue-box-page ;
· Learn our song and donate if you can.
As you will see from the 9-Step Process, we do not recommend embarking on the actual online questionnaire (which is a single question per screen page, requiring you to fill in each page before clicking “NEXT”) until you have followed the relevant steps and done plenty of background reading. If you decide to write the longer optional text file, it is advisable to write it and save it to your hard drive before you start to fill in the questionnaire.
In fact, reading around the issue is vital. You need to be able to convince the Government that you can understand the arguments for and against WF. That is, you need to be cogent. If you do not prove your cogency, your response will be given a lower quality rating.
This PC is not just about a majority for or against; it’s more to do with how you justify your preferences. It’s scandalous, of course. You wouldn’t be expected to swot up on political science before voting in a General Election!
Within the 9-Step Process, there is a section on Background/ Supporting Information (Step 7). We provide some background on this additional information here, but please click through the relevant links for more detail:
7a LEGAL ISSUES
Laws permitting and laws which are persuasively against WF. The laws exist but they need to be tested against the permitting law in a Court of Law. In other words, a challenge to permitting WF legislation can only be successful if the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is first challenged with law from other arms of UK law.
7b HEALTH CONCERNS
We suggest that you visit fluoridealert.org and search for the pages which interest you most by following the links. Fluoride Alert’s pages have an abundance of research references which you can copy to strengthen your concerns. If you don’t have time to read the studies, please consider reading the Abstracts and Conclusions.
7c ETHICAL CONCERNS
This website has an extensive description of why it is medically and morally inappropriate to medicalise our drinking water. Please visit them.
7d ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
The linked file contains a list of research references at the end which follow the text. We are concerned about fluoride in our freshwater rivers and streams where sewage treatment works are sited close by. Please try to visit some of the referenced documents before citing them in your response.
7e TOOTH EXTRACTION DATA
The NHS believes that swallowed fluoride reduces dental decay and hospital tooth extractions. This section demonstrates that the belief is unrealistic.
Once you start exploring the issue, it is possible to unearth even more topics than we have been able to highlight. So, if anything occurs to you that you need advice on, please do not hesitate – email us (wmaf@live.co.uk) and we will try to guide you. |
7f A MAP of the threatened area of the North-East. On the DHSC website, it is possible to find out if you are already fluoridated or threatened by adding your post code in the box on a page which leads from the map page.
7g LOCAL AUTHORITIES THAT HAVE DECLINED WF
We’re particularly proud of these Local Authorities who, since 1955, have gently defied their Public Health Consultants who were urging that fluoride be added to residents’ drinking water. Alas, this won’t happen now that the DHSC has taken over responsibility for initiating new programmes and for the cost of administering existing and new programmes. Local Authorities have lost the responsibility for administering and funding new WF programmes, mainly because they were reluctant to start the process.
Even after 37 years of failing to initiate new WF programmes, the UK Government and its Establishment are strangely determined to add fluoride to England’s drinking water. The visible reason is that it is supposed to be highly effective at reducing tooth decay and oral health inequalities. Both reasons are poorly substantiated by current research – research which has been funded by the UK Government. Nevertheless, the Government marches on and negligently ignores the truth.
7h POLLS
Is it not indicative of the lack of enthusiasm for the Public Health Measure that, had this PCWF been included on a General Election voting slip, WF would soon be dead in the water? ALL unofficial polls and surveys resoundingly demonstrate that the public has no appetite for this medical intervention.
7i RULES OF THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION
These are quite straightforward. If you know of anyone who cannot use a mobile phone or computer and who wants to complete the questionnaire, please help them to do so, but they will need to compose some of their answers before you attempt the questionnaire for them. We think that you can use your own computer or mobile if you have already completed the questionnaire, because by telling the DHSC that you are completing the questionnaire on behalf of someone, you will be allowed to send another response even though it comes from your IP address.
7j OUR FLUORIDE SONG
We hope this will go viral. We have recorded an audio version and a video version. The Lyricist, Brian Hooper, wrote the song at the time of the Southampton PCWF in 2008. Fortunately, the lyrics are relevant to this PCWF:
“We don’t want your flaming fluoride.
Can’t you hear us saying “No”?
Go and buy the kids a toothbrush.
Leave alone our H2O”.
We’re here if you need to chat online. Just email wmaf@live.co.uk
Thank you, and good luck
Joy and the Team