Thank you for noting the Green Partys' safety concerns over government plans to add fluoride to our water, but our concerns are wider than this.

Fluoridation contravenes a European Human Rights Convention and breaches basic medical ethics. No one should be medicated without their consent.

The fluoride that Blair hopes to add to our water is a toxic waste from the fertiliser industry full of impurities not found in pharmaceutical grade fluoride. Amazingly it has never been safety-tested for human consumption. Most countries have stopped fluoridation as they found no benefits. Rates of decay have not risen in those countries, but continued to decline.

Yet you quote Bishop's Cleeve dentist Dr Geoff Jenkins saying "fluoridation could be beneficial and pointed to its use in America as proof that it's safe". In the US fluoride has been linked to the huge increases in hypothyroidism and early onset of puberty. Infact over 40,000 studies on fluorides point to serious health risks and that fluoridation is of little benefit to teeth. Fluoridated Gateshead has the same level of tooth decay as non-fluoridated Liverpool.

Even the York Review, a recent scientific review on behalf of the NHS, found very little evidence to show that fluoridation improves dental heath. Moreover, its chair, Professor Sheldon, stated that "the review did not show water fluoridation to be safe".

Most of us already receive optimal levels of fluoride in the foods we eat. Tooth decay is caused by too much sugar and poor teeth care. Fluoridation does not address either of these. I urge all those concerned to write to their MP to vote on 8th September against Blairs mass medication plans.

Philip Booth, Press Officer, Gloucestershire Green Party.