Fluoride warning request rejected

A council committee has rejected a request from the Te Awamutu Community Board to add a health warning about fluoride to water rates notices.

On August 9, the Te Awamutu Community Board passed a Notice of Motion seeking a warning be added to the water rates bill “to raise awareness for pregnant women and those wanting to reconstitute milk formula used for bottle feeding babies to avoid fluoridated water in the event that Waipā District Council supplied water is fluoridated”.

The motion was considered by council’s Service Delivery Committee on Tuesday and, in a unanimous vote, was not supported.

In July this year, council was directed by the Ministry of Health to add fluoride to the Cambridge water supply. The directive did not include Te Awamutu or any other water supplies in the district. Council has already advised the ministry it will take at least nine months to fluoridate the Cambridge supply and that funding will be required. A funding agreement has yet to be entered into. A law change in November 2021 means the Ministry of Health — not councils — makes fluoridation decisions.