Page 1490 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 27 September 1989
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water supplies at a prescribed level as an important public and dental health measure.
Fluoride at high levels can be toxic. Similarly, chlorine, a chemically related substance, is a highly toxic gas, yet it is introduced to public water supplies world wide, at a prescribed level, again as a public health measure. I hope an extension of this debate would not be that we should remove chlorine from our water and that those who want to drink clean water can be told that they have the option of chlorinating their own water with tablets or that they may prefer the alternative of boiling the water that they might drink. This seems to me to be an extension of the debate to remove so-called toxic products from the water.
At the prescribed level of dose - one part per million in the ACT - a person would have to consume a bathful of water at one sitting to receive a fatal dose of fluoride.
Mr Prowse: That is a load of rubbish. It is a cumulative toxin.
MR BERRY: I must say this is another angle and, of course, it opens up the emotions again about fluoride, rather than dealing with the facts. It is a clear example. It has also been said that the National Health and Medical Research Council was a group of six people who have hung their academic hats on fluoride.
Mr Prowse: Correct.
MR BERRY: That is your opinion. I guess the National Health and Medical Research Council might have a different view about that. I could say that generally throughout Australia they are regarded as a premier group. I would not like to make that sort of judgment. It would be pretty easy to do it here in the coward's castle, but I think, if you went outside saying those sorts of things, you might be in a bit more trouble.
Mr Kaine: You live in the turret of this castle, do you?
MR BERRY: Well, the Labor Party is on top, if that is what you mean, Trevor.
The council consists of some 25 members, with representatives from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Confederation of Australian Industry, the Australian Federation of Consumer Organisations, the Australian Council of Social Services, representatives at the highest level from every State and territory, the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health, the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee and representatives from its own expert principal committees - the Public Health Committee, the Health Care Committee and the Medical Research Committee. The council is funded by the Commonwealth and not, as has been suggested, by Coca-Cola or Cadburys.
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