Page 1491 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 27 September 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Prowse: That is incorrect again. It was the New South Wales University school of dental health, talking about Coca-Cola. Get it right.
MR BERRY: I must say, Mr Deputy Speaker, I find your protection from interjectors a little bit lacking.
Professor Graham Craig, professor of preventive dentistry at Sydney University, has prepared a detailed response to the member's speech. A resume of his paper will be of interest in this house.
Canberra has fluoridated its water for 25 years. The level of dental health in Canberra's children and adolescents is extremely good. The decay rate is below the national average. The 1987-88 Australian national oral health survey found that there was a 32 per cent difference in the incidence of decayed, missing and filled primary teeth in children aged five to nine years; a 42 per cent difference in decayed, missing and filled permanent teeth in 10- to 14-year-olds; and a 25 per cent difference in adolescents aged 15 to 19. They are fairly substantial figures in anybody's language.
Mr Prowse: On whose figures?
MR BERRY: Well, it is a national oral health survey.
Mr Prowse: Is it scientific?
MR BERRY: The differences were even more marked between Brisbane, the only non-fluoridated capital city, and Canberra: 59 per cent, 53 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively.
Mr Stevenson: Not true.
MR BERRY: We cannot even agree in here, so really that demonstrates the need for it to go to a committee, where they can evaluate these sorts of things.
Mr Kaine: You just need to get properly informed and then we will be able to agree, Wayne.
MR BERRY: We will give you the opportunity, Mr Kaine. You could listen to the expert advice that would turn up before a committee. It seems that the Liberal Party is opposed to public information as well.
Children would have to receive extensive hand fluoridation to keep decay rates under control. In Queensland, each child treated by the school dental service receives a topical application of concentrated fluoride solution. That is said to be - - -
Mr Prowse: How often? It happens here as well.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .