Australia - Dental experts renew calls for Cairns to fluoridate water supply

James Cook University Head of Dentistry Professor Neil Meredith has offered to present scientific evidence about water fluoridation to Cairns Regional Council.
James Cook University Head of Dentistry Professor Neil Meredith has offered to present scientific evidence about water fluoridation to Cairns Regional Council.
Health
Dental experts renew calls for Cairns to fluoridate water supply

Kimberley Vlasic, The Cairns Post
October 23, 2016 8:00pm

PRESSURE  is  mounting  for Cairns Regional Council to fluoridate the local water supply after calls for state funding were answered.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last week committed to reinstating a capped infrastructure grants program for councils wanting to introduce the tooth strengthening chem­i­cal into their drinking water.

Speaking from James Cook University’s inaugural Dentistry Clinical Day on Saturday, Australian Dental Association spokesman Michael Foley des­cribed the funding announcement as a “small, positive step”.

Dr Foley has renewed calls for Cairns Regional Council to support water fluoridation, citing the Queensland Child Oral Health Survey 2010-12, which found children in Townsville, where fluoride was introduced in 1964, had the best dental health in the state.

“My message to Cairns Reg­ional Council is accept that dental health is a problem in Cairns,” he said.

“Dental health in Cairns is a far greater problem than it is in Townsville, just four hours down the road, and I would simply urge Cairns to listen to health experts rather than conspiracy theory fringe groups.

“Certainly the ADA, JCU and Queensland Health are very willing to help and advise council on major scientific and public health matters.”

The council decided to stop fluoride flowing through the city’s taps in 2013 but a recent community survey showed most residents wanted it back.

Mayor Bob Manning is also in favour of water fluoridation.

Dr Foley believes councillors’ reluctance is due to a lack of public health expertise and pressure from “superbly well-connected” but “completely unscientific” anti-fluoride cam­paigners.

Head of dentistry Professor Neil Meredith has once again offered to explain the scientific evidence behind fluoridation after councillors ignored a formal request by Councillor ­Richie Bates for a JCU presentation last month.

“Dental caries (cavities) is a major issue here in this area and fluoridation will access such a large part of the community that will benefit dir­ectly,” said Prof Meredith.

“It will reduce the incidence of pain and disease and it will also potentially save lives bec­ause we see patients up here who are dying of diseases, rheumatic fever, bacterial end­ocarditis, which are indirectly associated with dental decay.”


Comments

Jane
Jane 39 minutes ago
I grew up drinking fluoridated water in Melbourne. I don't have any cavities or fillings, however my teeth are brittle and pitted. I've had to have four caps and cosmetic work done. My thyroid is also diseased as are those of many of my Melburnian friends. Fluoride has been implicated by peer reviewed studies to result in both these things. The problem with it being in the water is that you don't know what dose you get. And everyone is a different age, height and weight so the negative effects of fluoridated water dosing is again unknown.

There is no safe amount for babies drinking formula milk mixed with fluoridated water.

I'd rather have cavities than a diseased thyroid and teeth so brittle that they chip when I bite into an apple.


Kelvin
Kelvin 2 hours ago
Cairns Post can't leave it alone; why is Cairns Post hell bent on publishing pro Fluoride articles? Seems a bit suss to me!

If you can't look after your teeth by brushing and flossing daily and eating a healthy diet then I don't think it is fair to impose fluoride in drinking water for those who don't want it.

If you wish to take fluoride then by all means get tablets or whatever else to add to your water; don't mess with mine thank you!! think of the money that could be saved and put to good use instead of costly mass meddling with our drinking water.



Lesley
Lesley 3 hours ago
Like Jane and her friends below, I was also diagnosed with low thyroid activity 9 yrs ago. I was lucky in that I found out it is caused by flouride in the water. 6 months after I stopped ingesting fluoridated water my TSH hormone levels returned to normal. It has taken 8 yrs for one of my anti-body counts to recover. We have had to install (at our own expense) our own water supply because 2 yrs into my fluoride free regime my health deteriorated. Once I began to avoid physical contact with fluoridated water I came right. Living in Melbourne it is a difficult regime to maintain, I have to carry our own water around where-ever we go and I cannot eat/drink anything from supermarkets where manufactured using fluoridated water. I have utmost respect for anyone who believes fluoride is good for their teeth, by all means take as much of these chemicals as you like but please don't force these poisons onto those of us who do not wish to consume them. So undemocratic and very un-Australian forcing a fellow Australian to consume toxic waste product containing arsenic, cadmium and lead (according to the Australian Drinking Water Standards). The standards used to say that the concentration on these impurities depended on the fertilizer industry but this statement has been removed in more recent editions. Everybody deserves the right to refuse these toxins - it is all about freedom of choice, regardless of whether fluoride is good for you or not.


Dan Germouse
Dan Germouse 4 hours ago
The dismal "experts" in question either don't know the difference between correlation and causation, or are playing dumb. There is no credible evidence that taking fluoride in water has ever prevented a single dental cavity. The forced-fluoridation fanatics often try to claim that the low rates of dental caries in western European countries which do not have artificially fluoridated public water supplies are due to naturally occurring fluoride in water, or some other kind of artificial fluoridation such as salt fluoridation. They are lying. They also rely on studies which do not measure individual fluoride exposure, are not randomised, are not blinded, do not properly account for confounding factors, are highly prone to systematic error, and are typically funded by corporations such as Colgate-Palmolive.


Admin 2 hours ago
@Dan Germouse spot on mate.

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Law-Rae
Law-Rae 5 hours ago
Seriously? How many times do we have to say it? WE DO NOT WANT FLOURIDE IN OUR DRINKING WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!My teeth are fine withoutit thank you very much and I grew up in unflouridated areas.Just stop this nonsense about how it helps your teeth. Stop lying. Stop acting like you know stuff, when you know stuff all.JUST STOP!


Ged
Ged 6 hours ago
Anyone coming forward on the 2008 Harvard IQ studies other than a Dentist?

Colin
Colin 6 hours ago
Does this Dentist have a degree in Toxicology, Endocrinology, Neurology, or any other internal medicine speciality?

Dentists can only talk about teeth, but they want you to swallow fluoride for a lifetime without consent.

This is unethical hypocrisy, dentists can not force you to swallow anything, when you sit in a dentist's chair, but want to force fluoride into your water, food, beverages and bloodstreams.


Dan Germouse
Dan Germouse 4 hours ago
@Colin

They don't even understand the effect on teeth. In reality, fluoride is toxic to teeth, not God for teeth.


Ben
Ben 7 hours ago
I personally do not want fluoride in my drinking water. In saying that, I have no problem if other people DO want it in their water.

What I do have a problem with is being forced to consume a chemical that I do not wish to, to me it's like someone comes up to me in the street and says "Here's some vitamins you have to have" and jabs a needle into me. It's an invasion of a chemical into my body that I do not want there, and council wants to take away my choice as to what goes into my body.

By all means, offer fluoride supplements or soluble tablets that people can put into their water if they wish, but don't force everyone to accept a chemical into their body that they don't want.

Michael
Michael 7 hours ago
It's too hot, and you drink too much water for there to be fluoride in the water in Cairns, too much stress on the kidneys. I'm 38 and recently had my teeth Xray'd after not drinking fluoridated water for 8 years, and the dentist said I have perfect teeth. I brush once a day with fluoridated toothpaste and eat a reasonable diet, go figure.