Leave Alone Our H2O

Words by Brian Hooper to a trad. melody

FFAUK and Open1 collaborated to record the song back in March 2022 and have since created a video.

The song was originally written by local man, Brian Hooper, in 2008 as a protest song for the campaign in Hampshire when Southampton and South-East Hampshire were threatened with Water Fluoridation by South Central Strategic Health Authority (SCSHA).

There was a Public Consultation in late 2008 - the first ever attempt to push through a WF proposal by employing this most unfair, undemocratic way of coercing everyone to drink medicinal water.  Despite 7,200 people voting against having their water fluoridated (with 2,800 voting in favour), SCSHA decided to go ahead and initiate their WF programme. 

Fortunately, Southampton was never fluoridated because of the process being delayed by a Judicial Review, the demise of SCSHA and other SHAs throughout England and the passing over of the responsibility for WF to the newly formed Public Health England in 2013.  The final nail in the coffin was the desire to fluoridate a small area which had not been part of the original proposal, meaning that the entire process had to begin from afresh.  This would have proven to be too expensive so the proposal was dropped. 

We fully expected the DHSC to resurrect the proposal when the Consultation Regulations were enacted.  However, the DHSC went quiet - possibly quietly licking its wounds and gathering its forces for an attempt elsewhere which would not be in the spotlight.  And so it proved to be the case: the fight was taken up north to the non-fluoridated areas of the North-East where the Directors of Public Health attached to the various local authorities went to work on the Health and Well-Being Boards who all said "jolly good idea".

Areas chosen for WF proposals are those where dental decay in 5-year-olds is seen to be unacceptable.  However, oral health surveys are not all they seem to be. 

Dental decay is worse in disadvantaged areas so if the dental examiners choose to visit primary schools in the poorer areas, then the dental decay rates are higher.  Small samples produce unsound results so the protocol is to aim for examining more than 250 children per city or district. 

During 2019 (the last survey prior to Covid-19), many samples were less than 250 and according to the protocol, the results are statistically insignificant.  Any attempt to fluoridate an area or city based on a sample of less than 250 would be patently unfair and completely unsound.  So that should rule Sheffield out of any WF proposal.  Southampton was not surveyed during 2019, so there can be no justification for resurrecting the proposal.  The other two candidates were Luton and Northumberland.  Both examined samples were above 250 - but only just.  Northumberland drew the short straw.

We've tried to make the video relevant  to the situation in England between the years of 2008 and 2024.  It was our first attempt at making a video so it has some rough edges.