Click photo to enlarge
Clean choppers: Nathan Raynbird (4), who attends the
Kidzway day-care centre in Tapanui, knows about the
benefits of dental hygiene. Tapanui residents are to
receive fluoride in their water supply when funding to pay
for installation costs has been confirmed.
The West Otago Community Board is to recommend to Clutha
District Council (CDC) an application be made to the Ministry
of Health for a 100 per cent subsidy to pay for installing a
system to add fluoride to the Tapanui water supply.
The capital costs of installing a system to add fluoride to
the Tapanui water supply are estimated to be $43,000 plus
GST.
CDC water services manager Hank Stocker said in a recent
report to the board that the ongoing operating costs
(chemical and labour) of adding fluoride to the water supply
were not eligible for a subsidy and would add $17 per annum
to the Tapanui water rate for each ratepayer.
Fluoridation of water supplies means topping up the
background level of fluoride in the drinking water to reduce
tooth decay.
A non-binding referendum by Public Health South was
undertaken in specific areas of the West Otago ward,
including the Tapanui township, in the 2007 local body
elections.
Out of Tapanui's population of 744, 365 people voted in the
referendum. Of those who responded, 49 per cent voted against
the introduction of fluoride and 51 per cent voted for it.
Referenda on the same topic were also conducted in Kaitangata
and Milton where the results were more clear cut. There was
an approval rate of 61 per cent in Kaitangata and 63 per cent
in Milton.
West Otago Community Board chairman Lindsay Alderton said the
introduction of fluoride would be a good opportunity to
improve the oral health of the community.
‘‘My personal view is that the cost of getting oral health
wrong is a huge cost to families,'' Mr Alderton said.
He acknowledged there was not ‘‘huge support'' for the
introduction of fluoride in the town but believed the board
had read a great deal about the subject and had ‘‘balanced it
all up''.
‘‘I raised the point that it is easy to pull the plug right
away if we need to.''
Community board member Joy Lietz was the only member to vote
against the proposal.
‘‘There is not sufficient evidence to prove fluoride is safe
and from what I have read it should not be internally
ingested,'' Mrs Lietz said.
‘‘The Timaru District Council had it and then they took it
out - why did they do that?''
‘‘In the future people could say ‘fluoride gave me this
disease' and sue,'' she said.
After receiving submissions in April last year from the
Fluoride Action Network of New Zealand (Fannz), an action
group working towards removing toxins from the environment,
CDC forwarded the submissions to Public Health South for a
response.
In a submission, Fannz spokeswoman Mary Byrne said the group
was concerned ‘‘a clear mandate was not received from
Tapanui''.
In its response last July, Public Health South maintained
that although the results from the Tapanui referendum were
not overwhelmingly in favour of fluoridation, referenda were
considered a high-risk approach to consultation.
Public Health South also said that in New Zealand populations
with fluoridated water, the only noticeable health change had
been significantly better oral health.
