Vol. 488 No. 4
192 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will review the addition of fluoride to water supplies in Ireland in view of the recent Environmental Protection Agency water quality report showing excess fluoride in Cork city water samples. [6324/98]
The report of the Environmental Protection Agency for the year 1996 on the quality of drinking water in Ireland welcomes the fact that nationally there has been a drop of nearly 30 per cent as compared with 1995, in the number of samples which exceeded the maximum admissible concentration for fluoride as specified in regulations of one part per million.
The report also notes that the maximum admissible concentration specified in regulations is one-third less than the value specified in the EU Directive on the Quality of Water for Human Consumption and the guideline value quoted by the World Health Organisation. In all but a tiny minority of cases the exceedances are at, or below, a limit currently considered acceptable by the World Health Organisation and the European Union.
In the case of Cork Corporation there has been a greatly increased monitoring programme in 1996. The report notes that there has been an increase in fluoride exceedances although, when sample numbers are taken into account, the relative increase is much less marked. Of a total of 41 exceedances in 177 samples only one exceedance was at a level of 1.2 parts per million or greater as compared with the EU limit of 1.5 parts per million.
