The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1958. Fluoridation of Water

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28697, 22 September 1958, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1958. Fluoridation of Water

One consequence of democratic freedom is the opportunity it affords vocal minorities, often ill-informed, to obstruct the welfare of the whole community. Nowhere has this been more apparent in New Zealand than in discussions on the fluoridation of water supplies to prevent dental decay. Opponents of fluoridation have resorted to fantastic arguments to support their case; they have formed anti - fluoridation associations; they have quoted a dubious array of self-styled authorities; they have cited religious beliefs, communism, totalitarianism, and even long-dead Hitler as witnesses to .the validity of their claims.. No statement, however inconspicuous .or innocuous, about the incontrovertible benefits of fluoridation can appear in the public press without drawing their fire. They do their Utmost to frustrate genuine attempts by well-qualified professional men. to improve public health.

The plain fact is that dental and medical associations throughout the world, after exhaustive inquiries, have endorsed fluoridation of community water supplies as the most convenient, safe, and effective method of preventing dental decay. The World Health Organisation has approved it; and it has been acclaimed as the most potent means of promoting public health that has been evolved in modern times. In New Zealand last year, a Royal Commission devoted months to a thorough sifting of the evidence for and against fluoridation; and every possible facility was given its critics for expounding their views. After examining all the arguments with meticulous fairness, the commission unequivocally endorsed fluoridation for New Zealand communities, but recommended that each com-

munity individually should have the responsibility (and the freedom) to adopt it After outlining democratic safeguards for the rights of all sections, the commission concluded: “We are “satisfied that widespread use “should be made of the fluori“dation process for the purpose “of achieving an urgently- “ needed improvement in the “ present serious state of dental “ health in New Zealand ”.

The latest flurry in the fluoridation controversy was occasioned by a report, released by the Minister of Health (Mr Mason), on the “outstanding “ success ” of a dental study at Hastings, where the water supply has been fluoridated since March, 1953. Mr D. M. Robinson, president of the New Zealand Anti-fluoridation Association, and Mr W. A. G. Penlington, president of the association’s Hastings affiliate, rushed in to criticise the findings, and to confuse the issue with illfounded comment on the statistics. The Ministerial statement could have been better framed to comprehend the views of the Medical Research Council’s officer who is advising on the Hastings experiment; but it is clear that fluoridation has been of tremendous benefit to the area, and that, contrary to the pessimistic forecasts of the opponents of fluoridation, the general health of the community has not been impaired. The significance of the improvement in dental health is all the greater because the Hastings water supply has been fluoridated for only a very short period in the lives of developing teeth. The anti-fluoridation associations may well be dismayed that so many communities—notably Wellington City—are copying the example of Hastings. It is perhaps too much to hope that they will give up their obstruction.