A letter to the deputy Premier of Queensland from Cairns housewife.

The curse of water fluoridation forced upon the people of Queensland is causing a variety of health problems to many people. But the Queensland government is ignoring the plea of those people, not to fluoridate the drinking water. The only useful application of fluoride is the topical one by dentists. But too much fluoride also causes dental fluorosis, or mottled teeth. Below is a letter from a Cairns housewife, Margaret Phillips, who is very badly affected by fluoride, which gives her asthma. She wrote to the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health in the Queensland government, Paul Lucas MP, see her letter below - but she says that she is not holding her breath for a reply. Why don't you also write a letter to the Qld. Health Minister? Click on this link. – Werner

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Hon PT Lucas
Deputy Premier and Minister for Health
State Parliament
Brisbane

Dear Sir,

I commend you for your recognition that the people of Queensland have some rights. I have formed the opposite opinion in recent years, however.

The purpose of your title as Minister for Health for Queensland should be more than just as a figurehead. I am sure that you take your job and responsibilities very seriously.
You are directly responsible to ensure the health and wellbeing of some 4.2 million citizens, of diverse ages, social and cultural backgrounds, with a variety of health issues. This is a huge job with seemingly insurmountable issues to overcome.

There is one issue which I wish to address which, I believe, will negatively impact on every Queenslander in the coming years, not to mention the budget and function of Qld Health. This same matter which was resolved, at speed, in Parliament, without consultation with the people, even though it intimately involves each and every one of us.

I have spent many hours (months) researching this matter because I have already, in the last 12 months, been seriously afflicted by it.

Last December and January, and again in March I stayed in Brisbane. I have been predisposed to suffering from asthmatic symptoms since I was 18, while living in Sydney (fluoridated) (I am 58 years old) By the end of January this year, I was so incapacitated by asthma that I was incapable of getting up a short flight of stairs. When I returned to Cairns I had difficulty walking from the plane to the terminal. It took all February for me to recover. When I returned to Brisbane in March, I drank bottled water but had one severe asthma attack after my son in law cooked pasta in tap water, unknown by me at the time.

Perhaps I am extremely sensitive to fluoride, or perhaps something else was added to the water as well as the fluoride, but since it is soon going into my water supply in Cairns, I have no choice but am faced with the prospect of installing very expensive filtration systems and rain water tanks, so I can try to avoid further debilitating episodes. I estimate the cost to be more than $10 000 so my home can be fluoride free.

In the early 70s I travelled to Tasmania (fluoridated) and was ill the whole time, then I lived in Maitland (fluoridated) for several months at which time I was unable to walk to the letterbox from the front door of the house. Moving from Maitland in 1973, I lived, completely asthma free, in Papua New Guinea (unfluoridated) and Rockhampton (unfluoridated),

In 1978 I moved to Melbourne (fluoridated) for 2 years and became extremely ill within one week of arrival and spent the next few years dosed up on cortisone, which caused other health problems.
In 1980, since I have lived in Queensland, (Rockhampton and Cairns) (unfluoridated), I have been asthma free until my recent trips to Brisbane (fluoridated).

At no stage in the past did I know about water being fluoridated, never occurred to me that was the reason for my asthmatic condition. I thought I had "allergies"

I feel my realisation is important because I have been fortunate enough to be able to decide that I needed to move house when I became allergic to something in that place. I have moved house 25 times in my life. Yet lived quite happily for 12 years in one house in Rockhampton, and 10 years in my present house in Cairns. I don't have any escape now!

In terms of the cost, did you know that it will cost $35 million to set Queensland up for fluoridation, and $2.50 per year per person to pay for chemicals? Not much, you say. $10.4 million a year. Did you know that only $64.3 thousand dollars of that money is drunk? or that only $3216 of that money (fluoride) might be drunk by primary school age children?

We would be better off financially, and no worse off, otherwise, if we just invited the chemical companies who manufacture the product, to pay us $14 million to dump their product in our water supply. At least then, the Government could afford to subsidise filtration systems for those of us who are unable to tolerate it.

I keep hoping it is all a bad dream!

I await your comments

Yours sincerely
Margaret Phillips
275 Toogood Road
BAYVIEW HEIGHTS
ph 40336277