FLUORIDATION ISSUE
Mass Medication Denied
(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 27. Fluoridation of public water supplies was not mass medication as had been claimed, Mr J. F Williams, the Assistant Director of the Health Department’s Dental Hygiene Division told the State Dental Nurses’ Institute conference today. Mr Williams said fluoride did not treat a disease. It simply supplied a nutrient. “It ensures that you have wellconstructed enamel on teeth,” he added. Opposition to such a public health measure in New Zealand, he said, meant nothing more than condoning a state of illhealth. This was a totally indefensible attitude on moral grounds alone. Mr Williams said the dental health problem was such in New Zealand that by six years 87 per cent, of children had experienced some dental decay. It had been shown overseas that dental decay had been reduced by up to 60 per cent, where the child had been on fluoridised water throughout its youth. This benefit had been carried on into adulthood.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28986, 29 August 1959, Page 15
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165FLUORIDATION ISSUE Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28986, 29 August 1959, Page 15
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