Dentist Tony Fallowfield (Letters, July 30), who accused reader Mr Parfitt of living on another planet, is himself living in the dental Dark Ages.

He clearly does not know that the fluoride which occurs naturally in most water, calcium fluoride, is not remotely similar to hexafluorosilicic acid (a concoction of fluorosilicates), which is used to artificially fluoridate drinking water.

Hexafluorosilicic acid is a "soup" of hazardous air pollutants contained in gases which have been through the pollution scrubbers of the phosphate fertiliser industry and "captured" to prevent highly toxic substances from being emitted to the air.

Analyses of this waste product of industry shows it contains arsenic and beryllium (known human carcinogens), lead and mercury (known neurotoxins), cadmium, vanadium and radionuclides.

Since the Medicines Control Agency has repeatedly refused to designate these fluorosilicates as medicinal substances, their status remains that of poisons.

Their administration outside of the constraints of the Poisons Act 1972 therefore violates both that act and the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.

An ammendment to the Water Bill proposes to permit the State to administer unregistered medicinal substances (but proscribed poisons) which have never been subjected to clinical safety trials to entire populations, without consent or medical supervision.

This is a clear violation of Article 3 of both the act and the EU Convention on Human Rights, as the Home Office guidelines themselves establish.

Parroting the "benefits" of fluoridation to an educated public brings no honour to the dental profession. Maybe Mr Fallowfield should do some in-depth independent research.

He could start by speaking to the growing numbers of his own colleagues who are appalled to discover that for 50 years dentists have been brainwashed by rampant propaganda about "fluoride" and fluoridation.

-Jane Jones, campaign director, National Pure Water Association, Barnsley, South Yorkshire