David Borrett: Sodium fluoride in Andover water supply

Four months after sodium fluoride had been added to the local water supply, Mrs Olive Harvey, ex-mayor, ex-councillor and ex-alderman, called an open meeting in the Guildhall to debate the matter.

Nobody knew what sort of attendance there would be. It was a Tuesday evening on November 20, 1956, and many may have preferred the warmth of a cosy fire rather than making their way to the rather chilly Guildhall.

About 240 chairs were optimistically laid out. Early on, people began to arrive and the seats were soon filled but they kept coming in. By the time the meeting was due to start there were people in all the gangways, others jammed against the fireplace and windows, as well as in the new kitchen – 600 altogether.

Mrs Harvey addressed the meeting and told the story of how she had personally been affected by the council’s mass medication policy.

Mrs Olive Harvey, mayor in 1949, spearheaded the campaign (Image: Edith Howard)

READ MORE: Plans to put sodium fluoride in Andover's water supply divided town

She stressed that individual freedom should be paramount and if we wanted to visit a doctor or dentist and to take such medicine when required, we should be able to do so.

Such rights had been passed down from our forefathers and we should be able to pass them on to our children.

Having sunk a well in her garden, there had been any number of people coming to get buckets of water – old ladies struggling to carry them home in an effort to avoid the added chemical.

Everyone was against the council’s policy and she was eventually persuaded to take a stand and call a meeting.

She went on to state that fluorine was a poison and the fluoride being used was a by-product of aluminium, tipped into the supply by an individual who has to wear protective clothing, such was the inherent danger.  

Other speakers had their say: Mrs Sykes of the British Housewives League urged the audience to employ a ‘weapon with a sting in it’ to fight back against the council; ex-dentist Thomas McClelland advocated good diet and teeth-cleaning sessions at school; research chemist T Barton Mann claimed that fluorides attack the bone and that the cumulative effect of the chemical was unknown, it being very difficult to expel from the body.

At the end, a resolution was drawn up to say that the people attending the meeting believed in the freedom of the individual and called upon the council to stop using fluorides with immediate effect.

When it came to a vote, there was a sea of hands accompanied by much cheering and clapping.

Only seven people voted against, five of whom were Labour councillors, one a Conservative councillor and just one member of the public.

The strategy agreed was that the resolution be sent to the council and if that failed to have any effect, a good counsel would be engaged at an estimated cost of £50 to look into the possibilities of taking the council to court. A sum of £16 was collected that night in readiness for the fight.

On December 4, the council decided to stage its own public meeting, again at the Guildhall, to take place on December 10.

The Andover Advertiser, in a front-page comment, appealed for a reversal of the policy on grounds of public opinion and the developing arguments over mass medication. By now, the paper was crusading firmly against fluoridation and was very critical of the council.

Five medical experts and Sir Allen Daley, chairman of the UK’s World Health Organisation, were engaged to sit on a platform at the Guildhall and field questions from the audience. Some councillors sat in the front row among the audience while others were behind a screen at the side.

Cllr Frank May, the current mayor, opened the proceedings and welcomed everyone there. Some early disruption was quelled by the vicar who pleaded for calm.

Each question had to be written down and sent to the platform but the mood was uncompromising; the first question from Mr H Fenton was ‘Is it not a criminal offence to put poison in people’s drinking water without their consent?’

Nevertheless, the panel answered each of the 47 questions with grace and good humour, although there was constant heckling from the audience. Sitting close to the Press bench, Alderman Rowland Charlton jumped up at one point and told a particular rowdy group near him to ‘Sit down and shut your mouth. You make me tired.’

For three hours and 20 minutes the meeting went on and although it was claimed that the ratio of fluoride to water of one part per million was harmless, even the medical experts were forced to admit that more than 10 years of fluoride intake at this level was still uncharted territory.

The audience was unpersuaded but the council could at least claim the matter had now received a full public debate. Years later however, Derek Tempero of the Advertiser commented: ‘It wasn’t a debate, it was a slanging match!’

In early 1957, the council debated again the issue of fluoride at its monthly meeting. Cllr Mrs Machin urged the ending of the fluoride experiment but she was in a minority.

Alderman John Ponting accused the Advertiser of orchestrating the whole affair with its wild headlines and unethical journalism.

His final jibe was directly at the editor Cyril Berry, whom he accused as being the ‘Nasser of Journalism’, a reference to the then president of Egypt who had just usurped ownership of the Suez Canal.

At the time, it was a bitter insult and the editor threatened court action if it was not withdrawn.

Ponting subsequently apologised for that specific remark but clearly still stood by the thrust of his arguments.

He was convinced that fluoride was a good policy and was unimpressed by the mass medication lobby. Other councillors fell into their respective camps, and when a vote was taken there were still only three who thought that fluoride should go.

A new mayor, Cllr Gordon Simpson, had been chosen in January 1957, to take up his position in May.

In the meantime, the Andover Anti-Fluoride Association was established with Mrs Olive Harvey as chairman.

It had raised the necessary £50 to consult a legal counsel and the result was positive. By late February she announced that the intention was to engage a first-rate barrister to proceed with an action in the High Court, at an estimated cost of £500.

The action would be two-fold: first to establish that the council had acted beyond its powers (ultra vires was the legal term) in adding the chemical to the water and second, to force the chemical’s removal from the supplies. Fund-raising would begin immediately.  

In May 1957, another council election was due with one councillor in each ward having to contest their seats.

Three of these were to put up again whilst Philip Ponting of Winton ward was standing down. Of the three standing, Jack Haines in Millway, although Conservative was anti-fluoride; Reginald Cox in Alamein was Labour and pro-fluoride, as was Frank Samuels in St Mary’s.

Because Haines was already anti-fluoride, he was opposed only by a Labour man George Harris. Cox was opposed by anti-fluoride candidate Laurie Porter, while Samuels was opposed by anti-fluoride John Gardner.

In Winton, there were two new candidates, Lt-Col A F Smith and Mr R E Jones. Smith was an Independent anti-fluoride candidate while Jones was Labour. So, in each poll there was one who was anti-fluoride against one who was for it.

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It was a real test of current public opinion with regard to fluoride, the first election after the addition of the chemical to the supplies. The result was a clean sweep for the ‘anti-flos’ as they had been dubbed, with Jack Haines re-elected and three new councillors gaining seats, all of whom being against the council policy.

Theoretically, it was now six against 10. But at this point, another councillor changed his mind. Citing the evident opinion of his electors in Winton ward whom he was supposed to serve, Frank May joined the anti-flo camp. It was then seven versus nine.

The final part of this saga will follow next week.

If you are interested in local history, why not join Andover History and Archaeology Society? Details can be found at www.andoverlocalhistoryarchaeology.uk

By David Borrett