Legislation Has To Be Enforceable

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30593, 9 November 1964, Page 2

Legislation Has To Be Enforceable

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, November 8. The main issues of preventive medicine could not be touched by legislation, the medical adviser to the Plunket Society, Dr. N. C. Begg, of Dunedin, told the Plunket Society conference.

No-one could force people to eat wisely or to take exercise, to fasten their car

safety belts or to love their] children.

Many New Zealanders had a quite unrealistic view of what the Government could do to change people’s behaviour, said Dr. Begg. Legislation could only be framed to stop the irresponsible actions of the minority. It would not be framed in the face of public opinion and laws could not be policed if the majority of people ignored them. As an example he quoted the fact that both local and national authorities had been unwilling Io make fluoridation of water compulsory, because so many people had objected noisily about it. Again, laws passed in 1908 and again in 1940 were useless against hydatid disease because they could not be enforced. The Plunket Society had taken a leading part in arousing public opinion on these two matters. In 1957 it had initiated a voluntaryhydatid eradication programme which had won public support.

For the last three years Plunket nurses had been asking parents if they would like to give their children the] benefits of taking fluoride] tablets. As a result a new ] generation of New Zealand ] was growing up with satis-] factory dental health.

Fifty thousand young i children had 100,000 parents] who could vouch that fluoridation was safe and effective] and there would be less] opposition now that local ] authorities saw which way the i wind was blowing. The fact that legislation i could only follow public opinion was a vital one. The Plunket Society had a duty to lead public opinion so that action could be taken.

Parents could not be forced ] to lock dangerous cleaning agents away from their children, but the society could ask the Government to force manufacturers to make all ingredients known on a central register. Then a child who swallowed some of the! product could be treated as effectively as possible by a doctor who knew what the] poison was.