Irish journalist Iva Pocock appeared before the EU Petitions Committee today as part of ongoing moves to end fluoridation of Irish water supplies.
Ms Pocock was representing her father the late Robert Pocock, a long-standing campaigner on the issue, who passed away unexpectedly less than two months ago. She told the committee residents of the Republic were the only residents of an EU state to be “mandatorily fluoridated by our Government”.
“Everytime we reach for a glass of water, fill the kettle for a cup tea or mix up a baby’s milkbottle we are forced to ingest fluoride. Whether we weigh 5kg or 50kg, are on dialysis for diabetes, undergoing chemotherapy or taking any amount of other medication, we are being dosed with fluoride” she told the committee.
Maintaining that consumers in Ireland and 10 percent of those in Spain and the UK “are being medicated by our Governments without any objection from the European Commission” she said the vast majority of national and local governments accepted that fluoridation was obsolete.
In Ireland, the Government through the Irish Medicines Board refers to fluoridation as a public health measure. But Ms Pocock said she contended, as did her father, that fluoridation is a breach of the Medicinal Products Directive 2001/83/EC.
This was because the substance that is being used “to fluoridate the Irish people”, hydrofluorosilicic acid, was being presented as having properties for preventing a disease, in this case dental caries, she said.
“Any substance that is presented as having properties for preventing a disease as defined under this Directive is a medicinal product. Hydrofluorosilicic acid is therefore a medicinal product”.
The hydrofluorosilicic acid that is imported into Ireland from Spain and purchased by the Irish Government in order to prevent a human disease, dental caries, requires a licence under the Medicinal Products Directive, she insisted.
“I am convinced that this product is being added illegally and in breach of of EU law. As guardians of the treaties and the enforcers of EU legislation the Commission you would be remiss, now that it has been made aware of the facts, not to enforce the Medicinal Products directive” she said.
Ms Pocock called on the Petitions Committee to the Irish Government that it therefore requires a medicinal products licence for the hydrofluorosilicic acid with which it medicates the Irish people.
