UKCAF website

UK medicines regulator accused of maladministration over refusal to recognise European Court ruling.

Doug Cross, 23rd May 2009

In a dramatic challenge, the UK's medicines regulator has been accused of deliberately failing to implement the 2005 European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that requires all 'functional drinks' to be regulated as medicines.

John Spottiswoode, Chairman of 'Hampshire Against Fluoridation' (HAF), wrote to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) demanding to know why it has refused to recognise fluoridated water as a medicine. In reply, John Taylor (of the improbably-named 'MHRA Information Centre') had attempted to dismiss the complaint by refering it to its 'Medicines Borderline Section. However, Spottiswoode rejected this evasion, stating that

"Our reading of the 2005 ECJ ruling (HLH Warenvertriebs and Orthica (Joined Cases C-211/03, C-299/03, C-316/03 and C-318/03) 9 June 2005) is that the 'borderline product' classification has effectively been abolished."

Now, in collaboration with UKCAF, John has accused the Agency of claiming to rely on this ECJ ruling case to support its position, when it actually demolishes it altogether. He says

"There can be no more damning evidence of the deliberate and politically-influenced improper exercise of (your) regulatory function. The ECJ ruling MUST be enforced in every member state - failing to do so for the past four years appears to constitute very serious maladministration, and demands an immediate Inquiry."

In a dramatic escalation of the confrontation, Taylor has now informed Spottiswoode that the Agency has referred the matter to its solicitors for an opinion, and will reply as soon as this is available.

This is a very important escalation of the challenge to the Agency over its persistent refual to concede that fluoridated water is a medicine. It has now been forced into a corner, and must explain its position publicly and in detail. Any

opinion will now need to be completely robust and verifiable, in Court if necessary, as any cracks will be pounced upon by those expert lawyers who have been waiting for an opportunity to test the Agency's increasingly desperate attempts to to justify its extremly shaky position.

There is no guarantee that the MHRA will just admit that its perverse interpretation of the EC law is wrong, forcing an immediate shut-down of fluoridation in the UK and a potential admission of liability for medical damages. After all, if the evidence of the high prevalence of dental fluorosis in all fluoridated communities is to be believed, thousands of children who were born in the UK since the 2005 ruling will now develop this disfiguring condition within the next few years. This would have been avoided had the MHRA immediately complied with the ECJ ruling, forcing this unlicensed medicnal product out of the nation's water supply networks.

An accusation of maladministration is a very serious charge against any public authority, and one that even this beleagured Government cannot ignore. This is especially the case where predictable and entirely avoidable physical damage to children has been, or will be, a direct consequence.

The challenge to the UK Government is hotting up, but this is only the first of several legal confrontations that are developing here in the UK. Others are under way before the European Commission, and our friends in Australia are keen to get to grips with their own fluoride pushers.

What is needed now are independent expert opinions from legal specialists, to establish that my interpretation of the ECJ's ruling with respect to fluoridated water is correct, and applies to their own domestic legal codes. Once that has been done, the discredited practice of water fluoridation will be on borrowed time, worldwide, as both the medical damages caused by fluoride and the obstacles to trade in fluoride-contaminated products begin to bite.

http://www.ukcaf.org/uk_medicines_regulator_accused_of_maladministratio.html
________________________________________________________________________________________