Tabloid headlines, “scares” and “threats”
cloud real issues in Geelong
fluoride controversy
25 June 2009
On 22 & 23 June, Geelong and national media were struck
with a blitz of tabloid headlines like “Fluoride
extremists strike again” (G Advertiser 23/6) and MP Michael Crutchfield
equating opposition to fluoridation with “terrorism”, before any investigation
was even underway.
Even ABC
television focussed on the sensational and entirely forgot to look at the
underlying community angst that has been unresolved for the last four years.
Of course the BAFF
organization deplores violence, or threats thereof. But we don’t yet know the
story of what really happened, and too many parties were quick to act as if the
allegations were all true, before any investigation or findings. The headlines
were mainly about allegations of a bomb threat to Barwon Water, a water bottle
with a nasty message on the lawn of an MP, and then a Geelong Advertiser
editorial that described nasty emails by people opposed to fluoridation.
But what has been
overlooked in all this?
(1) The fluoride decision was forced upon the Geelong
and Surf Coast
communities despite the previous election promise of “the community will make the decision”. Broken
election promises and denials of democratic process hurt communities. (2) Several dramatic, fluoride side-effect
sufferers in this region are being denied any protection by Barwon Water or the
local MPs. (3) Very strong scientific
evidence of long-term harm caused by using fluoride water has emerged in recent
years, been highlighted by the world’s most prominent scientists, but recently
distorted and ignored in the community messages coming to Geelong
from the Department of Human Services. (4)
Journalists have forgotten that bomb hoaxes and such threats have been used
around Australia
many times to discredit legitimate community organizations protesting issues,
for example, in the massive Coode Island
chemical explosion in 1991.
To expand:
- Prior
to the 2006 state election the government promised Geelong
that the ‘community would make the decision about fluoride’. Health
Minister Bronwyn Pike said fluoridation was “not on the agenda” and would
only occur with strong community support and she was aware there was
strong community opposition. Lisa Neville wrote constituents that
fluoridation could not go ahead unless it was called for by the community,
something that has not happened. Ian Trezise said to meetings and
individuals that he would stand up to make sure it was never forced on to
the community, but he did not stand up. Perhaps only Michael Crutchfield
has been true to his word since he always ridiculed the community wish to
be not fluoridated, and he never indicated that he supported a democratic
process.
Communities become fractured, damaged and
angry when treated the way the Barwon region has been treated on this matter.
The United Nations in its ‘International Covenant on Economic, Social &
Cultural Rights’ declares a Right to Health. In the explanatory material on
this Right it speaks of the need for communities to be involved in developing
the health programs and be partners in implementing them. Indeed, the Victorian
government claims to follow “Health Promotion” principles which means that
communities develop and feel ownership of health programs. Enforced
fluoridation of Geelong and the Surf Coast has been the exact opposite. It has
been forced on the community from the top down, with the community voice
stifled.
There was never a poll or even meaningful
consultation. There was merely a sham consultation, in which several business
and health organizations were approached and asked to make a call for
fluoridation. They accordingly did so, which merely meant that about 60 people,
the board members of those groups (like Barwon Health and Committee for Geelong),
had signed something supporting fluoridation. Meanwhile, a hastily
put together 3000 community signatures, with full personal details, on
individual letters of Non-Consent to fluoridation, were sent to Barwon Water
and utterly overridden by the water authority and then the Department of Human
Services and Health Minister. A clear message was sent to the community that
“what you want is not important in this”.
Little wonder there is community dismay and
outrage about this matter. Little wonder that so many young people now do not
even bother to vote: “why vote if this is all we get for it?”
The victim of the fluoridation fiasco is
our sense of community and community spirit.
- When
the Dutch legislature banned processes such as water fluoridation in the
mid-1970s it followed the large medical trial of fluoride side-effects
headed by Dr Hans Mooolenburg. They found that a significant proportion of
people were made sick by fluoride in the water, even though it was easy
for most doctors to overlook or miss that the stomach pain, skin rashes,
mouth ulcers, exhaustion and fatigue could quickly be alleviated by
several days of totally avoiding fluoridated water, followed by continual
avoidance of the toxic irritant. <click
here for report>
In Geelong
there are a number of well known such sufferers. Some are here because Geelong
is their ‘safe haven’ with Melbourne
being fluoridated. Ms Elaine Valentine
is a particularly dramatic such ‘fluoride sensitive’ patient, whose illness can
be life-threatening if she accidentally uses fluoridated water, or products
made with it. Her story was briefly publicized on the Channel 7 show Today
Tonight (1st August 2005),
and then in the Geelong Advertiser on 22/6/2009,
the day of the ‘bomb scare’ headlines.
Ms Valentine’s side-effects, when she slips
up in her fluoride avoidance, are severe asthma attacks, outbreaks of skin
ulcers that take a long time to heal, and extreme fatigue. She has testimony of
a Melbourne specialist and local
doctors that she suffers this condition. She has made extensive representations
to the Victorian Chief Health Officer Dr John Carnie, Health Minister Andrews,
and Barwon Water for special consideration and a supply of safe water for
herself if Geelong is fluoridated.
After being strung along for most of the last year she has now been denied any
help by all of these officials. Presumably because they know that there are a
number of other sufferers, just as there are in Melbourne,
and it would be too costly to recognize them and help them.
Ms Valentine is a much-loved Geelong
identity who does Edna Everage impersonations at community events, and is
regularly seen striding the streets (when she is well) delivering the Geelong
News in her neighbourhood. She has very little money to work out a fluoride
avoidance system when full scale fluoride water is in her taps over the next
few weeks. She is fearing for her life and safety. She already avoids all food
that contain fluoride. She is stocking up on bottled pure water, and will even
have to shower with these bottles of water, or drive an hour or more to a
country location to shower!
- The
campaign by BAFF Inc. to stop fluoridation has obviously always been a
lawful, peaceful and generally scientific one. One of BAFF’s main
activities has been running public information forums, debates and
scientific presentations. A number of times the forums have featured
international scientists and Australian experts such as Dr Andrew Harms, a
former Australian Dental Association president. BAFF has regularly invited
the Health Minister and Chief Health Officer to attend these meetings and
take equal time to present their arguments FOR fluoridation on the stage.
Invited them to debate and defend their claims in the proper manner. On
every occasion the fluoridation officials have found excuses and reasons
why they could not or WOULD not attend.
The evidence that fluoridated water harms
many consumers is well summarized and documented in the International PROFESSIONALS’
STATEMENT to END WATER FLUORIDATION, which is now signed by over
2,500 science and health professionals. The signatories include the Nobel Prize
winner for Medicine (2000), professors of dentistry and medicine, and Australia’s
former Federal Health Minister, family doctor Doug Everingham. See this
STATEMENT on the homepage of www.fluoridealert.org the science-based website of the
International “Fluoride Action Network”.
- In
the flurry to create sensational headlines about “Anti-fluoride
extremists”, Geelong and
national media appeared to forget that there are many Australian examples
of “scare campaigns” about local protesters being revealed later as
hoaxes. The Coode
Island chemical explosion of
1991 is one such. Local residents had formed a group to try to get their
potentially dangerous facility moved. The gigantic explosion and fire that
sent flaming metal tanks soaring hundreds of metres into the air, and
poisoned the atmosphere for kilometres around, was found to be due to
maintenance negligence of the company. BUT, in the immediate media
excitement of the event the PR company for Terminals Limited circulated
the rumour that local activists might have committed sabotage. This was
what most media picked up and ran with for weeks, and the police had to
treat it as serious. No evidence for it ever appeared. When the
investigation was complete a year later, and Terminals was found fair and
square to be to blame, there was little publicity. The local community
protest had been effectively silenced and Terminals had their way and
stayed on the same, close-to-residential site.
In a political battle between loggers and
conservationists in Gippsland, 1995, Police Superintendent Haldane received
information that pro-logging interests might conduct a sabotage incident in an
attempt to discredit the conservationists. He circulated this in a memo to all
police which is publicly available - http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/a/aa/Haldane.pdf
Tasmanian Bob Burton’s book “Inside Spin: The Dark Underbelly of the PR
Industry” http://www.sourcewatch.org:80/index.php?title=Inside_Spin:_The_Dark_Underbelly_of_the_PR_Industry
describes many such incidents. The book is described as “A blistering
critique of the largely hidden role played by the public relations industry in
Australia, Inside Spin reveals how corporate and government spin doctors
invisibly influence just about every news story we read, see and hear. Winner
of the 2005 Iremonger Award for Writing on Public Issues.”
Government spin doctors have been
doing a masterful job for the last three years in presenting highly biased and
misleading information to the Geelong community about fluoridation being proved
“safe and effective”.
Geelong and national media should keep these possibilities strongly in
mind when handling the all-too-quick snappy criticisms of citizens who oppose
fluoridation by commentators with a vested interest, such as local MP Michael
Crutchfield.
The investigation of the
so-called bomb threat and death threat have only just begun, may or may not
come to anything, and certainly have come to no findings yet. Yet Michael
Crutchfield has made no secret that he had come to his own findings by the
weekend of 20/6 and 21/6, before anything had even hit the media.
A local commentator, Mrs Sandra
Camm, pointed out Mr Crutchfield’s all-too-quick pointing of the finger in her
letter to the Editor of Geelong Advertiser, 24/6. Crutchfield had a word with
the Editor and Mrs Camm has now been officially banned from ever publishing
anything in the Geelong Advertiser or its subsidiaries, ever again. The power
of government over media, in this instance, is frightening.
David McRae
acting editor of www.baff.org.au