FLUORIDE IN WATER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28820, 14 February 1959, Page 13

FLUORIDE IN WATER

Professor Walsh

Repeats Claim

ADELAIDE, February 13. Professor J. P. Walsh, Dean of the University of Otago’s faculty of dentistry, today reiterated his claim that governments should use fluoride in public water supplies to prevent dental decay. The suggestion has been criticised by Sir Stanton Hicks, former professor qf human physiology and pharmacology at Adelaide University. He said it was contrary to scientific principle and medical ethics to include fluoride in water supplies

Professor Walsh, who is a delegate to the World Health Organisation’s dental health seminar at Adelaide University, said: “Sir Stanton Hicks has applied the principles of medical ethics in order to oppose fluoridation. “I am a member of the medical profession as well as a dentist and in all sincerity I say this: I could not sleep if my medical conscience carried the weight of the million decayed teeth of children.” Professor Walsh believes that by the time half the children in Australian schools reach the age of 14 their teeth have been filled, decayed or entirely lost.

“The sad fact is that we have more untreated decay than most of the so-called under developed countries represented at the current seminar here,” he said.