Welsh Water - fluoridation?
Fluoride in water is put in the spotlight by health authority
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WELSH Water has been asked to carry out a feasibility study on the possibility and cost of putting fluoride in drinking water in Herefordshire.Children in the county are said to have the poorest teeth in the West Midlands, where many other authorities have supplied fluoridated water for up to 20 years.Welsh Water confirmed that West Midlands Strategic Health Authority had requested the study. It would take eight weeks and start in April, at the earliest."We are responsible for providing our customers with excellent drinking water and we do not add fluoride to our water. Dosing drinking water with medical additives is a matter for medical authorities,'' it said.Herefordshire Primary Care Trust has emphasised that whatever the findings, full, county wide consultations will take place before a decision is made.
Dr Frances Howie, director of public health, said the health authority had a statutory duty to consult and discuss with the public before any action was taken and this would be done.
The request from the SHA to look at the situation in Herefordshire follows a recent government Water Bill, which included a new set of statutory arrangements including the risk of litigation against water companies.One problem facing Welsh Water is the complexity of water supplies in Herefordshire, which come from various sources.
Already lodging an objection to fluoridisation of the county's drinking water is Hereford Times reader Susan Seaman, of Bush Bank.
She has made her views known to both the West Midlands SHA and Herefordshire PCT and describes fluoridisation as a system of excessive state power.
"My main argument against it is, not so much that big agrochem is stuffing its waste down our throats, as the denial of choice of the individual,'' she said.
She urged people to demand a referendum on acceptance of fluoridisation of water supplies by writing to Dr Rashmi Shukla of the Strategic Health Authority at 5, St Philip's Place, Birmingham B3 2PW.
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WELSH Water has been asked to carry out a feasibility study on the possibility and cost of putting fluoride in drinking water in Herefordshire.Children in the county are said to have the poorest teeth in the West Midlands, where many other authorities have supplied fluoridated water for up to 20 years.Welsh Water confirmed that West Midlands Strategic Health Authority had requested the study. It would take eight weeks and start in April, at the earliest."We are responsible for providing our customers with excellent drinking water and we do not add fluoride to our water. Dosing drinking water with medical additives is a matter for medical authorities,'' it said.Herefordshire Primary Care Trust has emphasised that whatever the findings, full, county wide consultations will take place before a decision is made.
Dr Frances Howie, director of public health, said the health authority had a statutory duty to consult and discuss with the public before any action was taken and this would be done.
The request from the SHA to look at the situation in Herefordshire follows a recent government Water Bill, which included a new set of statutory arrangements including the risk of litigation against water companies.One problem facing Welsh Water is the complexity of water supplies in Herefordshire, which come from various sources.
Already lodging an objection to fluoridisation of the county's drinking water is Hereford Times reader Susan Seaman, of Bush Bank.
She has made her views known to both the West Midlands SHA and Herefordshire PCT and describes fluoridisation as a system of excessive state power.
"My main argument against it is, not so much that big agrochem is stuffing its waste down our throats, as the denial of choice of the individual,'' she said.
She urged people to demand a referendum on acceptance of fluoridisation of water supplies by writing to Dr Rashmi Shukla of the Strategic Health Authority at 5, St Philip's Place, Birmingham B3 2PW.
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