UK Parliament House of Lords
Asked by Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Earl Howe on 30 June (WA 464) and 14 July (WA 203), whether the methods used by public health observatories to detect potential adverse effects of water fluoridation provide adequate assurance about more modest associations involving large population effects, given the difficulty in detecting the effects of water fluoridation suggested in the paper 'Adding fluoride to water supplies' by KK Cheng et al in the British Medical Journal on 6 October 2007.[HL11651]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe): Professor Cheng suggests that small relative risks are difficult to estimate reliably by epidemiological studies. This is one of the reasons why we are consulting on more specific measures for comparing the health of populations in fluoridated areas with those in areas where no fluoride is added to the water.
Asked by Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 19 July (WA 266), whether (a) they also recognise the benefit of a multidisciplinary approach in updating the findings of the York (2000) and Australian (2007) systematic reviews and making them available to the public; and (b) the Cochrane Oral Health Group would be a suitable body to undertake this.[HL11653]
Earl Howe: Yes, we will be looking to involve a range of relevant disciplines in any new research projects that we commission and value highly the rigour that the Cochrane units bring to health services research.
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Earl Howe on 30 June (WA 464) and 14 July (WA 203), whether the methods used by public health observatories to detect potential adverse effects of water fluoridation provide adequate assurance about more modest associations involving large population effects, given the difficulty in detecting the effects of water fluoridation suggested in the paper 'Adding fluoride to water supplies' by KK Cheng et al in the British Medical Journal on 6 October 2007.[HL11651]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe): Professor Cheng suggests that small relative risks are difficult to estimate reliably by epidemiological studies. This is one of the reasons why we are consulting on more specific measures for comparing the health of populations in fluoridated areas with those in areas where no fluoride is added to the water.
Asked by Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 19 July (WA 266), whether (a) they also recognise the benefit of a multidisciplinary approach in updating the findings of the York (2000) and Australian (2007) systematic reviews and making them available to the public; and (b) the Cochrane Oral Health Group would be a suitable body to undertake this.[HL11653]
Earl Howe: Yes, we will be looking to involve a range of relevant disciplines in any new research projects that we commission and value highly the rigour that the Cochrane units bring to health services research.
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