Fluoride plea to save kids' teeth in Portsmouth
CALLS were today (7th June)made for fluoride to be added to water to stop an epidemic of rotten teeth in children.The plea from one of Portsmouth's leading health chiefs came after a shock report showed nearly half of under-fives in the city already have tooth decay.
Paul Edmonson-Jones, director of public health on the city's Primary Care Trust, said putting the tooth-strengthening chemical in the water supply was a proven way of improving oral health.
By law, fluoride can be put into water if the move is approved by the area's health authority and approved in a public consultation.
Health chiefs in Southampton have already approached Hampshire's strategic health authority to ask for a public consultation to begin.
Mr Edmonson-Jones said he was waiting to see the health authority's response, but would make an approach himself on Portsmouth's behalf if necessary.
A report released today by the South East England Public Health Observatory revealed that 44 per cent of five-year-old children in Portsmouth already have at least one tooth which is either missing, decayed, or filled.That is the highest rate in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; across the whole of the south east only Reading and Slough are worse. East Hampshire, where 36 per cent of children have decay, and Fareham and Gosport, where the figure is 35 per cent, also fare badly – above the south east average of 32 per cent.
nicholas.brooks@thenews.co.uk
Paul Edmonson-Jones, director of public health on the city's Primary Care Trust, said putting the tooth-strengthening chemical in the water supply was a proven way of improving oral health.
By law, fluoride can be put into water if the move is approved by the area's health authority and approved in a public consultation.
Health chiefs in Southampton have already approached Hampshire's strategic health authority to ask for a public consultation to begin.
Mr Edmonson-Jones said he was waiting to see the health authority's response, but would make an approach himself on Portsmouth's behalf if necessary.
A report released today by the South East England Public Health Observatory revealed that 44 per cent of five-year-old children in Portsmouth already have at least one tooth which is either missing, decayed, or filled.That is the highest rate in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; across the whole of the south east only Reading and Slough are worse. East Hampshire, where 36 per cent of children have decay, and Fareham and Gosport, where the figure is 35 per cent, also fare badly – above the south east average of 32 per cent.
nicholas.brooks@thenews.co.uk
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