Page 2726 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 1991
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However, it would be cavalier of the Government to reinstate fluoride without addressing other recommendations of the report of the Standing Committee on Social Policy, as well as those of the NHMRC report. The standing committee particularly targeted fluoridated toothpaste. It wants to make toothpaste manufacturers make unfluoridated toothpaste available at prices comparable to the fluoridated variety. Also, it wanted the manufacturers to stop making fluoridated toothpastes enticing and palatable to children by the addition of colourings - other than white - and flavours.
The NHMRC report went further than commenting on toothpaste and was concerned with the total ingestion of fluoride through supplements, and included infant formulas. The NHMRC also wanted to see a public and professional education campaign on the use of supplements where water supplies were fluoridated.
When I introduced the Bills into the Assembly last week, I said that the Government would be addressing these issues at the first available opportunity. In this regard, I will be raising the matter at appropriate venues with a view to encouraging other States and the Northern Territory to take note of and action on the recommendations of both the standing committee and the NHMRC reports.
The standing committee's fourth recommendation becomes somewhat redundant in the light of the Government's decision and the NHMRC report. It requests the ACT Government to seek urgent funding from the NHMRC to establish a major independent study on the effects on dental health of a reduced level of fluoride in the ACT water supply.
The Government has stated its preference for the one part per million level; so the study cannot take place, especially as it is believed that no other water supply in Australia is fluoridated at this level. The NHMRC report confirmed its previous recommendation that one part per million was its preference and that communities that did not have a fluoridated water supply should be encouraged to fluoridate at the recommended level. In paragraph 3 of its major conclusions, it stated:
There is no evidence of adverse health effects attributable to fluoride in communities exposed to a combination of fluoridated water (1 ppm) and contemporary discretionary sources of fluoride. The increased total fluoride exposure in recent decades has been associated with some increase in the occurrence of dental fluorosis - predominantly in those individual children with a history of high total ingestion of fluoride, mostly from discretionary sources. While it is conceivable
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