Water Fluoridation: Risk Analysis, Cost Analysis, Health Analysis

Joy Warren made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Health and Social Care Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was refused by Department of Health and Social Care.

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

On 7th March 2022, Earl Howe (Minister for Health) on winding up a debate on the Water Fluoridation clauses in the Health and Care Bill 2021-2, stated:

“Finally, any future public consultation on expansion would also include information on the impact of any proposals on health, the environment and cost-benefit analysis.”
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2022...
62CCB199/HealthAndCareBill#contribution-A20F1C68-BE6F-4D43-AC42-18C668F54B81
Bitly: http://bitly.ws/p6Cwin

A Public Consultation on Water Fluoridation has been announced for the North-East of England, presumably to begin in the New Year (2023). There are two months remaining of 2022 so an Environment Risk Assessment, a Health Risk Assessment and a Cost Analysis should be well under way, if not complete.

Please let me see these assessments and cost analysis if completed. If not completed, please let me know the expected date of publication.

Yours faithfully,

Joy Warren

Department of Health and Social Care

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Department of Health and Social Care

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Warren,

Please find attached the Department of Health and Social Care's response
to your recent FOI request (our ref: FOI-1424822).

Yours sincerely, 

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care

show quoted sections

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

Regarding the Cost Analysis for the North East Water Fluoridation Proposal, according to Lord Markham in the House of Lords, funding has been secured: "We want more of the country to benefit from water fluoridation, and many noble Lords may be aware that yesterday we announced, subject to the outcome of this debate and future consultations, that funding has been secured to begin expansion across the north-east into Northumberland, County Durham, Sunderland, South Tyneside and Teesside, including Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington and Middlesbrough." (https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2022... )

The amount of funding granted by HM Treasury must have been justified following the completion of a costing exercise. Therefore, a cost analysis must exist. Please let me see a copy of the cost analysis for the North East of England Water Fluoridation proposal as requested in my original FoI request.

Yours faithfully,

Joy Warren

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

Your Reference: FOI 1424822

I sent you a follow-up FoI Request on 25th November. I would appreciate an acknowledgement of receipt.

Yours faithfully,

Joy Warren

Department of Health and Social Care

This is an acknowledgement - please do not reply to this email.

Thank you for contacting the Department of Health and Social Care. 

If your enquiry is in relation to the pandemic, the Government has
launched a COVID-19 ‘hub’, which can be found
at [1]www.gov.uk/coronavirus and is regularly updated. 

The answers to many other questions can be found on [2]GOV.UK,
the [3]Department of Health and Social Care website or by visiting
the [4]NHS website. We may not respond to you if the answer to your
enquiry can be found on either of these websites. Where a reply is
appropriate, we aim to send a response within 20 working days.
 
Please note that the department cannot arrange vaccinations. [5]This
webpage gives information on vaccination. You can also contact your GP,
clinical commissioning group or call 119.

 

If you have symptoms of COVID-19 you must get tested as soon as possible.
The swab test takes less than a minute and is pain-free. Results from test
sites are generally received within 24 hours of the test being
administered. Further information, including what symptoms to look out
for, can be found [6]here.
 
If your business is interested in helping the Government increase
COVID-19 testing capacity, please visit [7]this webpage. Please note that
the service that was set up for businesses to offer other COVID-19 support
has closed. If you have a product to sell to the NHS, please visit
[8]https://www.supplychain.nhs.uk/.   
  
Since 15 February 2021, anyone travelling to the UK from a red-list
country has been required to quarantine in a managed quarantine facility
for a period of ten days. There will be periods where no countries are
listed, but the red list remains ready to be stood up should the global
epidemiological situation change. In these circumstances, there is
guidance available on a range of queries.

To find out how to apply for a medical or compassionate exemption, please
visit
[9]www.gov.uk/guidance/exemptions-from-managed-quarantine-for-compassionate-reasons.

If you have been in quarantine and have a complaint about the hotel,
please raise your concerns with the hotel itself in the first instance. If
your complaint is unresolved, please email the complaints team at
[10][email address].
 
If you are writing in connection with an NHS or social care service please
note that the department does not manage health and social services
directly, nor does it process complaints. It also cannot give clinical
advice or intervene in matters concerning patient care or social services.
If you wish to make a complaint about a healthcare professional, an NHS
organisation or a social care provider, please visit [11]this link.

 
If you would like to raise your concerns about a COVID-19 testing
provider, or have any other NHS Test and Trace enquiries, you can
contact [12]NHS Test and Trace enquiries, feedback and complaints. 

Our [13]Personal information charter and [14]privacy notice explain how we
treat your personal information.

 

This e-mail and any attachments is intended only for the attention of the
addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not
permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. Any views expressed in this
message are not necessarily those of the Department of Health and Social
Care. Please note: Incoming and outgoing email messages are routinely
monitored for compliance with our policy on the use of electronic
communications.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
2. https://www.gov.uk/
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
4. https://www.nhs.uk/
5. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://www.gov.uk/getting-tested-for-co...
7. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-the-gov...
8. https://www.supplychain.nhs.uk/
9. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...
10. mailto:[email address]
11. https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-t...
12. https://enquiries.test-and-trace.nhs.uk/...
13. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
14. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

Department of Health and Social Care

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Warren,

Please find attached the Department of Health and Social Care's response
to your recent FOI request (our ref: FOI-1427529).

Yours sincerely, 

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care

show quoted sections

Dear Department of Health and Social Care

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of the Department of Health and Social Care's handling of my FOI request 'Water Fluoridation: Risk Analysis, Cost Analysis, Health Analysis'. Your Ref: 1424822 dated 24th November 2022.

My request for information asked for two things:
1. Sight of the completed Environment Risk Assessment and the Health Risk Assessment in relation to Water Fluoridation, and
2. The date of expected completion if not completed.

This is the exact wording and response:
-----------
“Please let me see these assessments and cost analysis if completed. If not completed,
please let me know the expected date of publication. “

“The Department has not completed an Environment Risk Assessment, Health Risk
Assessment or Cost Analysis in relation to the proposed expansion of water fluoridation for
the North-East of England. A public consultation on the proposals will take place in
accordance with the Water Fluoridation (Consultation) (England) Regulations 2022 in
2023, although the exact date has not yet been set. When launched, the consultation will
provide information to ensure respondents sufficiently understand the context and impacts
of the water fluoridation proposals.”
-----------
You replied that the assessments had not been completed. You did not tell me the expected date of completion or if they had been commenced or, indeed, if there was any intention to commence them.

The assessments ought to have been started at the time I made my request on 24th November 2022 because that was a promise made by Earl Howe in the House of Lords on 7th March 2022, so why am I not allowed to be told that they are being written?

Also, in relation to the Health Risk Assessment, the numerous studies (76 in no. which are listed and discussed on www.fluoridealert.org) demonstrating that human intelligence is reduced when over-exposed to fluoride when in the womb and when fed with fluoridated baby formula must have been noticed by John Newton of OHID at the time I made my FoI request on 24th November 2022. Their availability in the public domain must have been noticed by him since he has promised continual review of the research literature in relation to health and fluoride. And I am sure that he has learned about the court case in the USA where Water Fluoridation is being challenged because of its potential to cause developmental neurotoxicity.

With alarm bells ringing, this should have necessitated a new health assessment because the evidence of harm of damage to the developing brain is overwhelming.

Also, the highly relevant Swedish study on hip fracture (Helte et al, April 2021) should have been included in the WF Health Monitoring Report 2022. Had it been referenced in that report, we would not be where we are today: the study from Sweden is damming of fluoride – 50% more hip fracture in Swedish areas with fluoride in drinking water when compared to non-fluoride areas. So, we need a health assessment published, and well before the imminent Public Consultation (PC) on Water Fluoridation in the North-East of England. The new hip fracture assessment must account for hard water/soft water, ethnicity and deprivation so that more consistent results can be achieved. Also note that the greater consumption of [Indian] tea in England is another factor which ought to be factored in.

We're also waiting - perhaps in vain - for research into the greater occurrence of hypothyroidism in fluoridated areas.

So, I am requesting an internal review because there has to be an Environment Risk Assessment and Health Risk Assessment in the pipeline if not completed. If neither have been started or if both have found no harm, the Public Consultation will be seen to be a sham. The Public Consultation announcement should not be a vehicle for the Risk Assessments. They should be published separately and sooner rather than later and definitely before the PC commences.

As a comment and I hope that you will tell John Newton this: the conclusions of any assessment need to be published now and not during the 3-month PC. In any case, if the risk assessments find harm, there would be no need to continue with the PC. Why put the population in the North-East through the hoops of a PC and waste our money when knowledge of harm is known by John Newton of OHID?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...

Yours faithfully,

Joy Warren

Department of Health and Social Care

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Warren,

Your requested internal review of FOI-1424822 is now complete. Please see
the attached letter for the outcome.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Internal Reviews
Department of Health and Social Care

show quoted sections