Lancashire Campaign Against Fluoridation

[Mitch]

Here's a link to The Lancs Group Against Fluoridation in our water supply:

www.goldplanet.co.uk

It's a great community campaign website, with about 400 members at the moment. Anti-Fluoridation groups across Lancashire are beginning to link up.

I thought this Skelmersdale group's little website was brilliant, really informative and not blinding me with technology.

Here's an except - this substance Hexafluorosilicic Acid sounds horrendous!

"The groups draw attention to the fact that the substance Hexafluorosilicic Acid is a toxic industrial waste and a Class 2 poison. Ron Baxter, a local campaigner from Skelmersdale said:. “There is ample scientific research to show that this substance is a health risk”.
“It is more toxic than lead and only marginally less so than arsenic. Putting this poison into our water supply is simply irresponsible - I very much hope that councillors in this area will follow the lead of councillors in Rossendale Lancashire - who recently rejected proposals to add fluoride to Rossendale's water supply after fierce criticism from residents and health experts”.

They've links on their website to the national campaign as well.

[michele cryer]

Thanks Mitch, will definitely check that site out...

[gary]

Addition of any external source (element) to a 'natural source' simply based on some scientific train of thought that the addition would advance or be beneficial is tantamount to keeping carp in used engine oil...

The fish neither asked for it, nor can they tolerate it, and they certainly can survive without it....

As usual, some organisms are less tolerant to external influences than others, keep it clean, keep it water..


gary

[gary]

An uneducated guess?

Why is it I get the feeling that the MP for Pendle seems to always ask the right question but to the wrong person?

Also, when an MP asks questions in the house of commons, you'd think they would at least base their opinions on scientific concepts. Not with Mr Prentice it seems...

Besides catagorically stating that mobile phone masts pose 'no threat to health', the MP for Pendle is not unknown to utter questions that at times would appear to be those of a latter day 10 year old grammar school boy. Here's an extract from a debate on fluoridation in the house of commons...

Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle): Are those people who live in areas that have naturally fluoridated water being poisoned?

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo031110/debtext/31110-28.htm

What does the MP care?
According to Gordon Prentice, "if there had been problems they would have shown up". Pendle MP's Response to mobile phone mast health concerns, Lancashire Evening Telegraph Sat 24th Nov 2000]

Of course, cancers and the like don't appear overnight.
It takes a longer exposure for adverse reactions to become apparent.

Evidently, any MP who asks such basic questions has not done their research and is a clear sign they don't take the subject as seriously as perhaps they ought.

Not to worry though, if you manage to query an MP just before election time you'll find they jump quite high, and suddenly they remember that they REALLY ARE servants of the people who elected them.

But let's not forget the role of a Member of Parliament.
Because it seems the MP for Pendle needs reminding.

An MP is elected to represent those of his constituents.
This representation is at a central government level where major decisions are made or debated.

A constituancy is divided into 'wards' and a councillor is also elected to represent their constituants at a more local level called local government.

One would think that democracy dictates that an MP would actually listen to and uphold the views and requests from the majority of councillors in his/her ward?

This is not the case with the Pendle MP.
In 2005, at a full council meeting in Nelson, a motion was tabled that the chief executive request the MP support the private members bill for stricter planning control bill for mobile phone masts.

Knowing the controversy and doubt about the safety of these masts the Pendle MP refused to even read the contents of the parliamentary bill!

In a letter to PRISM the Pendle MP stated he would 'consider' supporting the Bill if it gained approval after its second reading in 2006.

This is the same MP who received hundreds of letters from worried constutuents from all over his borough including those from barnoldswick and reedley to name a few.

It seems when one's horse is stationed, compassion and loyalty is dismissed, with party politics taking the reign thus polluting even the most evil thought that an MP belongs to a 'community' other than that at westminster.

It does seem that Mr Prentice is more concerned with saving whales than his constituents 'teeth', and was commended recently for supporting a new dental centre in his hometown.

It's just a shame the MP for Pendle had a 'pre arrangement' to open a shop instead of tending to the real concerns of his constituents about health concerns from siting of microwave phone masts.

Still, you never know, the filtration of water and inclusion of additives goes through a lengthy process, and has been implemented elsewhere.

So additions to this won't harm us will it, because according to the Pendle MP, if there had been problems they would have shown up?

[Mitch]

There's a shift now, and I think people are just waking upto the fact that local government has it's hands tied by central government policy - we've seen this clearly on Masts - and Prentice (being a Labour MP) is simply even more of a 'whippin' boy to New Labour policy - and we know what their policies are on Floridation and on Masts.

Still in our tightly knit community in Pendle local councillors (many of whom were born here, and have much loyalty to residents and the area) do the best they can to serve residents - but as we see their hands are being tied more and more.

This means residents have to take things into their own hands!! Indeed, do not local councillors increasingly call on independent local campaigns and key contacts within them to challenge issues they fundamentally disagree with - like the insensitive siting of Masts, and development of Towneley Park - because they know that their hands are tied, and that if Planning Department Management gets any whiff of an interest they ban them from voting.

I do not think we can rely on local councillors as we did in the days of Selina Cooper 100 years ago in Nelson - the State/Central Government is pushing local services into the hands of private business, and local government has less and less power over local decisions. Tony Greaves has, interestingly, been similarly vocal on the introduction of Liberata in Pendle recently running local services. ;D

Best Mitch

PS. I've been thinking a lot about Les's idea of independent campaign coalitions across Burnley and Pendle, particularly on us getting more independence to challenge - part of this lies in fund raising I think.