The Citizen (11/7/03) reported the Government plans to add fluoride to our drinking water - in a mistaken effort to prevent tooth decay.

Poverty and the over-availability of addictive, sugar-rich foods are significant causes of tooth decay. But the Government is unlikely to challenge the profitable position of the major food manufacturers and retailers who benefit at the expense of our children's health - and teeth. Better dental care and education is also needed, but that too is hampered by unaffordable dental charges for adults as the Government has overseen dentistry move into the private sector.

What Ministers will want to keep hidden from the public is the source of the fluoride they intend should be pumped into our water supplies. It is hexafluorosilicic acid - a toxic waste product of the phosphate fertiliser industry derived from the pollution scrubber liquor in factory chimneys. Proctor and Gamble admitted in 1984 that a tube of Colgate toothpaste "theoretically...contains enough fluoride to kill a small child." Increasingly research shows fluoride could be causing cancer, Altzheimers and other illnesses.

Only five countries in the world fluoridate their water to any extent, and no real benefit is demonstrated in any of these. Yet our Government wants us to be subjected to this mass medication. It is surely adding insult to injury for Health and Environment ministers to state that those who remain opposed could use water filters or buy bottled drinking water (Sunday Times 11.5.03.) Plastic water bottles add significantly to waste problems, but their increased purchase will add to the profits of some multinational companies, again fitting the Labour Party's corporate agenda.

It is typical of New Labour that rather than seeking to address the causes of tooth decay, they would rather steamroller through a highly controversial technical fix to address the symptoms.

The Green Party opposes this mass medication - both nationally and in Gloucestershire. We welcome David Drews' and Geoffrey Clifton-Browns' opposition to the addition of fluoride to our water and call for Gloucestershires' other MPs to also reject the plans.

Bryan Meloy Gloucester Green Party