Australia - Mayor defends decision

LEAVE MY WATER ALONE: Ilga Sleja, from the Ballina Fluoridation Free Network, is shocked Ballina Shire Council last week agreed to fluoridate the shire’s water supply.

Mayor defends decision
2nd April 2009
BALLINA’S mayor, Cr Phillip Silver, this week defended Ballina Shire Council’s decision to approve fluoridation of the water supply without current public consultation.
The emotive issue has attracted plenty of comment from anti-fluoridationists since the council last week gave its support to a request from the Far North Coast branch of the Australian Dental Association to reconsider fluoridation of the water supply.
Council had knocked back a request from NSW Health to fluoridate the water supply in 2006. Lismore City and Richmond Valley councils agreed to fluoridation.
Cr Silver this week said the council did, at the last meeting, have the option of referring the issue to the community.
“However, in fairness it had been extensively consulted only two-and-a-half years ago and many people would be aggrieved that we were going back and redoing the consultation when the debate has been fairly constant for the last two-and-a-half years,” he said.
“If it had been 10 years ago, there could have been a case for revisiting the issue.”
Ilga Sleja, from the Ballina Fluoridation Free Network which was formed in 2006 when fluoridation came to council, said she was shocked with last week’s decision.
The group organised a public meeting about the issue back in 2006 which was attended by 150 people.
“The fact there was such a big outcry in 2006, to override the community’s input is very underhanded,” she said.
She said generally when an issue like fluoridation first came before council, the report was simply noted by the councillors, to then be considered at a later meeting.
“But in two seconds flat (at the last council meeting), we’re fluoridated,” she said.
She said there were alternatives for residents who wanted to treat their teeth with fluoride, like toothpaste and mouthwash.
“I really believe it’s a personal thing,” she said.
“I would not go to the councillors for a dental appointment, so why are they treating my teeth?”
She said education about dental hygiene and diet also was preferable to fluoridation of the water supply.
The group plans to resubmit a petition signed by 1500 people in 2006 calling for council to reject the move to fluoridate the water.
She defended the group’s intention to use 2006 data as she said those in favour of fluoridation also were using surveys done at that time to support their arguments.
The group also is planning a public meeting to be held in Ballina next week. Phone Ilga on 6686 9263 for details.
Meanwhile, North Coast Area Health Service Teeth for Health project manager, John Irving, said it could be up to 12 months before fluoride is added to the water, saying there were engineering issues which had to be sorted through at dosing points.
He said Ballina Shire’s water supply had a level of 0.11 parts per million of naturally-occurring fluoride, and 0.9ppm would be added to the supply to bring the level up to 1ppm.
He said many anti-fluoridationists referred to research from parts of the world where the naturally-occurring fluoride levels were in the order of 20ppm.
“Where that occurs, there have been studies undertaken and there has been concern,” he said.
“But 1ppm is not 20ppm.”
He said a fluoride level of 1ppm provided ‘massive tooth protections’.
He said the latest National Health and Medical Research Council review of fluoridation 15 months ago ‘found no reason to say that fluoride is anything but a safe, effective way of improving oral health at a population level’.
He said research commissioned in March 2006 found 62 per cent of 558 people in the area served by Rous Water were in favour of having the public water supply fluoridated. The research was conducted by Charles Sturt University.
“Sydney’s water supply was fluoridated in the 1960s,” he said. “In the past few years, more than 20 shires in NSW have decided to fluoridate their water supply following representation from NSW Health, the Australian Dental Association or other bodies like the Australian Medical Association.”