It was no surprise to hear that thousands of Brisbane homes have received water overdosed with fluoride at the rate of 30 to 31 milligrams per litre when the rate of fluoride contained in the water should have been 0.8 mg/L (0.8 parts per million).

Premier Bligh says the health risk was almost zero ("Malfunction blamed for fluoride overload", ABC News, 14/5/09).

But a Queensland water safety spokeswoman said that the concentration of fluoride in Brisbane's water supply was the "equivalent of 30 fluoride tablets in every glass of water".

A two-year-old boy died of fluoride poisoning in Brisbane's Mater Hospital on 14/5/73 "after ingesting at one time no more than six fluoride tablets." (page 99, "Fluoride in Australia - A case to answer" by Wendy Varney).

"This death was never reported in any medical or dental journal throughout the world…" (page 201, "Fluoridation - Poison on Tap" by Glen S. R. Walker FIMF EMECS MAES).

Premier Bligh was wrong when she said "the (Brisbane) incident was unprecedented at any other fluoride treatment plant in Australia" ("Malfunction won't slow fluoride rollout: Bligh", Brisbane Times, 14/5/09).

"A family named Collins was rushed to hospital in Dalby, Queensland after a malfunction of the fluoridation plant in October 1976. All the family were treated in hospital for fluoride poisoning. The plant was closed for nine months...All this was reported in the Dalby Herald 28/1/77 and confirmed by Dalby Council even though there is no mention in the Council's minutes of any accident or harm to the Collins family." (page 281, "Fluoridation - Poison on Tap")

Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the amount of fluoride (overdose in Brisbane) was "of no health concern at all" ("Malfunction won't slow fluoride rollout: Bligh") but admitted on prime-time television (14/5/09) that people could suffer from gastroenteritis (whose symptoms include fever, vomiting and diarrhoea).

If readers care to visit www.FluorideAction.net and then type "fluoride accidents and spills" in the search box they can access information that should be an embarrassment to those who promote fluoridation.

For further damning information, this link www.fluorideinbeds.org/FIB/albertschatz.asp accesses an affidavit by the claimed discoverer of Streptomycin (the first human cure for tuberculosis), which is an indictment of the practice of fluoridation in Chile.

With fluoride being more poisonous than lead and only slightly less poisonous than arsenic, those who claim that this fluoride overdosing of a public water supply is nothing to worry about are skating irresponsibly around the truth.