Vol. 489 No. 6
450 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children if, further to Parliamentary Question No. 259 of 24 March 1998, he was correct in stating that public drinking water in France is fluoridated in view of the fact it is not, that fluoridation of drinking water exists only to a level of 10 per cent in the United Kingdom, 2 per cent in Spain, is practised in one canton in Switzerland and is practised nowhere else in Europe. [9145/98]
The Deputy, in his earlier question, inquired about EU countries which have mass flouridation and not just water flouridation. I replied to the Deputy on this basis. Mass fluoridation includes various systemic methods of fluoridation where fluoride is ingested by the population. Mass fluoridation includes water flouridation, salt flouridation and milk fluoridation.
The addition of fluoride to salt, at level of 250 parts per million, has been taken by a number of countries as an alternative to water fluoridation where water distribution systems are too fragmented. European countries which now have fluoridated salt on the market include Switzerland, Germany, France and Belgium. The World Health Organisation is currently co-ordinating a demonstration programme for fluoridated milk, which is being provided to children attending nursery and primary schools in Bulgaria, Russia and the United Kingdom.
I made no reference to public drinking water in France. The reference was to systematic fluoridation. Currently 40 per cent to 50 per cent of sales of salt in France are fluoridated.
In Switzerland, in addition to the one canton which uses water fluoridation, systematic fluoridation in the form of fluoridated salt at 250 parts per million is available in the other cantons. Currently 78 per cent of all salt sales in Switzerland are fluoridated. I have no data on fluoridated salt sales in Germany and Belgium. Fluoridated water is available to five and a half million in the United Kingdom and four million people in Spain.
