Shire veto on fluoride

THE water supply in the Hinchinbrook Shire will no longer be fluoridated after councillors voted at their Ingham chambers yesterday to drop it.

The issue has been a divisive one for the region with four councillors – Marc Tack, Kate Milton, Andrew Lancini and Maria Bosworth – voting to end fluoridation. Three – Mayor Ramon Jayo, Deputy Mayor Mary Brown and councillor Wally Skinner – voted for fluoridation to continue.

The heavily monitored chemical was rolled out across the Hinchinbrook in May 2013 despite surveys which revealed most residents were against its implementation.

Health professionals from across the region have justified the chemical’s benefits.

The majority of North Queensland councils, including the Burdekin, Whitsundays, Cassowary Coast, Cairns and Charters Towers, voted against fluoridation in 2013.

Townsville has used fluoride since 1965. The Labor government made fluoridation in Queensland mandatory in 2007, before the LNP made it optional in 2012.

The latest phone poll commissioned by Hinchinbrook Shire Council revealed nearly 51 per cent of residents opposed fluoridated water.

Cr Tack moved a motion yesterday for council to not continue with fluoridating the shire’s water supplies and that council should take the necessary steps to cease the practice “as soon as practicable”.

“My concern is that fluoride is added to the water supply as medication,” he said.

“I, as a councillor, believe that it is a principle of ethical public health that mass involuntary medication must never proceed without the express consent of the community.”

Cr Bosworth, who took part in the vote and discussion via a phone conference, seconded Cr Tack’s motion.

Cr Milton voted in favour of the motion stating she had read literature on both sides of the Government.

She said she understood fluoride was good for children but education on good dental health was also important.

She said she was far more concerned of the possible detrimental effects of drinking fluoridated water for those suffering from kidney issues, factoring in the older members of the community.

Cr Lancini seconded port for the motion.

Cr Skinner said fluoridating the water supply was initially proposed by Queensland Health to reduce the burden on the health system.

Cr Skinner accepted the rights of the residents but was disappointed with the approach of “out- of- town” antifluoride campaigners, that heavily influenced, and in his opinion, “distorted facts considerably” in that debate, raising concerns within the community.

It is believed to cost $ 50,000 to decommission the local fluoride plant. sup-