Leave Alone Our H2O

words by Brian Hooper

FFAUK and Open1 collaborated to record the song back in March 2022 and have since been creating a video which will be uploaded to several outlets.

The song was originally written in 2008 as a protest song for the campaign in Hampshire when Southampton and South-East Hampshire were threatened with Water Fluoridation by South Central Strategic Health Authority (SCSHA).

There was a Public Consultation in late 2008 - the first ever attempt to push through a WF proposal by employing this most unfair, undemocratic way of coercing everyone to drink medicinal water.  Despite 7,200 people voting against having their water fluoridated (with 2,800 voting in favour), SCSHA decided to go ahead and initiate their WF programme.  Fortunately, Southampton was never fluoridated because of the process being delayed by a Judicial Review, the demise of SCSHA and other SHAs throughout England and the passing over of the responsibility for WF to the newly formed Public Health England in 2013.  The final nail in the coffin was the desire to fluoridate a small area which had not been part of the original proposal, meaning that the entire process had to be begun from afresh.  This would have proven to be too expensive so the proposal was dropped.  No doubt, the DHSC will wish to resurrect the proposal once the Consultation Regulations have been enacted later this autumn.

Areas chosen for WF proposals will be those where dental decay in 5-year-olds is seen to be unacceptable.  However, oral health surveys are not all they seem to be.  Dental decay is worse in disadvantaged areas so if the dental examiners choose to go to primary schools in the poorer areas, then the dental decay rates are higher.  Small samples produce unsound results so the protocol is to aim for examining more than 250 children per city or district.  During 2019 (the last survey prior to Covid-19), many samples were less than 250 and according to the protocol, the results are statistically insignificant.  Any attempt to fluoridate an area or city based on a sample of less than 250 would be patently unfair and completely unsound.  So that should rule Sheffield out of any WF proposal.  Southampton was not surveyed during 2019, so there can be no justification for resurrecting the proposal.  The other two candidates are Luton and Northumberland.  Both examined samples were above 250 - but only just.

Sound track

Coming soon

Video

Coming soon - it's in the can