Journalist takes her late father’s campaign against fluoridation to Europe

A campaigning Irish journalist has appeared before the EU Petitions Committee recently in an effort to stop the fluoridation of Irish drinking water.

Iva Pocock was representing her late father Robert Pocock, a long-standing campaigner against fluoridation who died in April this year. She told the committee that the people of Ireland are the only residents of the EU to be “mandatorily fluoridated by our Government”.

She said: “Every time we reach for a glass of water, fill the kettle for a cup of tea or mix up a baby’s milk bottle, 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.”

The Irish Medicines Board regards fluoridation as a public health measure but Ms Pocock argues that fluoridation is a breach of the Medicinal Products Directive. She said that the substance being used – hydrofluorosilicic acid – is presented as having properties for preventing disease, namely dental caries. Speaking to the committee, 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.

“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, it would be remiss, now that it has been made aware of the facts, not to enforce the Medicinal Products Directive.”

Ms Pocock argued that the Irish Government therefore requires a medicinal products licence for the hydrofluorosilicic acid “which it medicates the Irish people”.

---