Page 63 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991
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The issue of water fluoridation has been something that I have followed closely over many years. I lived in Melbourne in 1977 when fluoride was finally added to the water supply in that city. Of course, I had personal reasons. Both of my children were bottle-fed babies; one with non-fluoridated water, the other with fluoridated water. While neither of the two children has dental caries, there are alarming differences in their teeth. One has mild fluorosis and malformation; the other, who was bottle-fed with unfluoridated water, has near perfect teeth. Many will well understand some of my concern.
The issue of mass medication and freedom of choice is one that I have great difficulty with. For many who put forward submissions and came before the committee, it was also an area of concern and conflict. When I found the reference before the Social Policy Committee I knew that it was not going to be an easy task to pursue; but I recognised that personal views had to be put aside and that all the evidence had to be taken on board and weighed up and a conclusion reached.
As the committee chairman mentioned in his preface of this report, there was, at times, difficulty in sorting out the fact from the fiction. However, a conclusion was finally reached, with the endorsement of all five members of the committee. The committee has made a well considered decision, for which I am sure support will be forthcoming from other members of the Assembly. While I have no doubt that fluoride significantly reduces dental caries, as the committee report states and as I said before, it is a responsible and sensible practice to keep the amount of any additive to the water supply at the lowest level that will achieve the maximum effect.
To me there is no doubt that times have changed since 1964, and the total level of fluoride now ingested and applied has increased. Reducing the level to 0.5 will go some way to counteract this. However, I do want to acknowledge that some people - many of those mentioned throughout the report - will still have to continue to further reduce their levels. For some this will mean avoiding fluoridation and fluoridated water at all costs.
I would urge other members of the Assembly to read much of the information and literature available on the subject and arrive at a considered view; but remember that it is 1991 - world records continue to be broken, Canberra's population has increased since 1964, and many other changes have occurred.
As I mentioned earlier, one of those changes is total ingestion of fluoride levels which certainly have increased significantly since the introduction of fluoride into the ACT water supply. I believe that this committee has
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