ONE of the most contentious human rights issues we face locally is fluoridation – the use of the public water supply to provide medical treatment without individual consent, using the unlicensed toxic chemical waste of the pesticide and fertilizer industries. Europe has rejected fluoridation as unsafe, unbeneficial and unethical. Now it is being rejected across America and Canada and other American-influenced countries.

As a policy it is doomed and discredited. Several weeks ago a resolution opposing water fluoridation was passed by the largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States, the League of United Latin American Citizens - LULAC. This Resolution may prove to be one of the most powerful official indictments against fluoridation to date. Below are clauses that have a direct bearing on our local situation. This Government's moral duty is to ban fluoridation by law. Handing over control to local councils does not make it safer nor does a democratic majority vote make it ethical. Medication is the sole right of the individual. I have sent the Resolution to Sir George Young, whose support of this human, civil rights and medical abuse, is in line with Government policy - an indication that in England powerful industries pull weight, and powerless people have to suffer.

EXCERPTS FROM THE LULAC RESOLUTION: “WHEREAS, the purpose of a public water supply is to supply water to the entire community which is composed of people with varying health conditions, in varying stages of life, and of varying economic status; not to forcibly mass medicate the population which is a civil rights violation; And WHEREAS, fluoridation is mass medication of the public through the public water supply; And WHEREAS, current science shows that fluoridation chemicals pose increased risk to sensitive subpopulations, including infants, the elderly, diabetics, kidney patients, and people with poor nutritional status; And WHEREAS, the proponents of fluoridation promised a safe and effective dental health additive, but the San Antonio Water System's (SAWS) contract for fluoridation chemicals proves a "bait and switch"; as SAWS is adding the toxic waste by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, that has no warranty for its safety and effectiveness for any purpose from the supplier (PENCCO, Inc.) or the source (Mosaic Chemical); And THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that LULAC commends efforts by organizations that oppose forced mass medication of the public drinking supplies using fluorides that are industrial grade, toxic waste by-products which contain contaminants (arsenic, lead, mercury) which further endanger life; And BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that LULAC supports efforts by all citizens working to stop forced medication through the public water system because it violates civil rights; And BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that LULAC opposes the public policy of fluoridation because it fails to meet legislative intent; And BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that LULAC demands to know why government agencies entrusted with protecting the public health are more protective of the policy of fluoridation than they are of public health.

Approved this 1st day of July 2011.

Jennifer Johnson, Upper Clatford.