Trevor Sargent
Question:83 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Health the level at which fluoride becomes toxic in the human body. [11889/96]
Written Answers. - Fluoridation of Drinking Water.
Trevor Sargent
Question:84 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Health the effects, if any, on human and animal life if fluoride is not added to the drinking water. [11890/96]
Trevor Sargent
Question:85 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Health the reason fluoride continues to be added to Irish drinking water in view of the fact that dental caries is not a life-threatening disease, that it is easily avoided by proper diet and proper dental hygiene and that fluoride is a toxic waste by-product with known detrimental health effects. [11891/96]
Limerick East): I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 to 85 inclusive, together.
Fluoride is a compound of the element fluorine in combination with another organic or inorganic natural substance. Fluorine itself is a natural substance which occurs widely in nature and always in combination. Like many other natural substances, fluoride, if taken to excess, can cause detrimental health effects.
I am advised that chronic toxicity can be associated with long-term absorbtion of elevated levels of fluoride, that is, levels well above the optimal level for water fluoridation of public water supplies. There is little morbidity and no mortality associated with this chronic toxicity. Acute toxicity occurs with the ingestion of a large quantity of fluoride at one time. It can never occur through ingestion of water fluoridated at the optimal level for water fluoridation of public water supplies.
Fluoride is supplemented to the public piped water supplies as a positive public health measure for the reduction and control of dental caries — decay — to the optimal level of one part of fluoride per million parts of water, under the Health (Fluoridation of Water Supplies) Act, 1960. This has long been recognised internationally as a safe and effective way to improve oral health. Detrimental health effects can never occur at the level to which the public water supplies are fluoridated. The fluoridation levels in the public piped water supplied are regularly monitored by health boards to ensure compliance with the statutory level. All fluoride used in the public piped water supplies, whether as a by-product or as a primary product, is of high quality.
Dental caries is not itself a life-threatening disease but the sequelae of dental caries can, and have, resulted directly and indirectly in unnecessary and preventable human deaths. Dental caries is not easily avoidable by proper diet. It is avoidable with much difficulty and with a degree of commitment to a severe non-cariogenic diet which people generally are unwilling to give. Dental hygiene,per se, has no demonstrable effect on dental caries prevalence and/or incidence. Prolonged scientific studies have failed to show any correlation between dental hygiene and dental caries. Dental hygiene is of course important in the prevention of tooth loss arising from gum disease.
It would be expected that the termination of the national water fluoridation programme would result in raising the levels of dental caries to those levels pertaining in Northern Ireland where there is no such comparable scheme. Dental caries in Northern Ireland are generally about 40 to 50 per cent higher than in the Republic. This has prompted the Northern Ireland authorities to make preparations to introduce into that jurisdiction a scheme similar to that which has been operated here in the South with marked success for over 30 years.