Fluoride is not natural

We are going forward with a process which introduces hydrofluorosilicic acid, a toxic substance, into our water supply because the mayor used his casting vote to ignore not one but two referenda.

Central Coast First's Cr Laurie Maher exploited the little known fact that these very expensive consultations, which ratepayers paid for, are not binding unless they are specifically identified as binding.

Trust has been trampled in the Gosford Local Government Area by too many elected representatives.

The signing of approval to dose the water by the Secretary of the NSW Department of Health is just a function of his office.

Trying to spin the process and responsibility away from those councillors who made the decision looks bad.

The mayor infers what the council puts in our drinking water will be natural.

It will be nothing of a sort.

It is hydrofluorosilicic acid, identified on council's website as a by-product of the purification of phosphate rock, where the high concentration of the toxic stuff is not acceptable in fertilizer.

I understand that is because of its transfer into stock and on to humans through milk, which is knocked back if the fluoride content surpasses strict standards.

This is just one of those many waste products which industry makes money on with the assistance of compliant government.

DDT is one Australians kept ingesting long after informed countries woke up.

In parroting the words "at this concentration, fluoride is not harmful or toxic", Mayor Macfadyen goes beyond his own acknowledged limited understanding, and into the realms of another political fantasy.

Edward James Umina