Vol. 418 No. 7
202 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Health if he will outline the proportion of the samplings of flouride levels in water supplies in County Meath in 1990 and 1991 which were regarded as unsatisfactory in terms of the relevant regulations; if he will further outline the nature of the problem and its consequences in these cases; and whether the returns for County Meath were above or below average in this regard.
The Health (Fluoridation of Water Supplies) Act, 1960, provides for the fluoridation of public piped water supplies to reduce the incidence of dental caries. Fluoridation is achieved through the addition of hydrofluosilic acid to water supplies. The regulations specify limits of between 0.8 to 1.0 parts per million as satisfactory. Using these criteria the percentage of satisfactory results for 1990 and 1991 were 60 per cent and 79.6 per cent respectively. However when what are termed marginal results are taken into account (i.e. 0.7 — 0.8 parts per million and 1.0 — 1.1 parts per million — which are acceptable by dentists internationally) the results were significantly improved to 89.1 per cent and 90.7 per cent respectively.
There are no health consequences of these results. In fact these results compare with the national average and it has been shown that there is a major decline in the prevalance of caries in school children since the introduction of the fluoridation programme.
