Fluoride not back in Hastings water

Fluoride was supposed to be added to the Hastings water supply a year ago but it still hasn’t been, despite the district health board’s ‘‘serious and ongoing concerns’’ about the impact on dental health.

The Hastings District Council removed fluoride from the town water supply after the Havelock North gastro-outbreak in August 2016. Since then, the dosing system used for fluoride has been used for chlorine instead.

Last year the Hawke’s Bay DHB said it wanted fluoride returned to the water.

It said ‘‘community fluoridation remains an ongoing and serious concern’’ and ‘‘reinstatement is a high priority for Ma¯ ori and Pacific oral health’’.

The council responded by saying fluoride could be added to the supply at its Wilson Rd bore in August last year and would be available for its other two bores within ‘‘two to three years’’. But it still hasn’t been added at any bore.

Council spokesman Craig Thew said the council was waiting on ‘‘WorkSafe advice on storage requirements’’. ‘‘HDC’s plan is to reintroduce fluoride across all parts of the network, once all treatment plant upgrades are in place and operational mid-2021. The DHB has requested information from council as to the potential percentage of households which would benefit from the Wilson bore being activated earlier. The DHB is currently considering this information,’’ Thew said.

If fluoride is added to the Wilson Rd bore it will mean 70 per cent of Flaxmere’s 10,000 residents receive fluoridated water.

Hawke’s Bay chief medical and dental officer Robin Whyman said that by 2021 some children would have spent the first five years of their life without a fluoridated water supply.

There were other measures, such as fluoride toothpaste and the community oral health service that would ameliorate the effect but these would not remove all risk.

‘‘We would expect an increase in the incidence of dental decay in the vicinity of 20 per cent,’’ Whyman said.

Hastings was the first place in New Zealand to add fluoride to its urban water, as a means of preventing tooth decay, in 1954.

Napier does not have fluoride in its drinking water and it was removed from the water supply in Central Hawke’s Bay in 2012. About 60 per cent of New Zealanders have access to fluoridated water.

A bill currently making its way through Parliament would give DHBs the authority to decide if water supplies should be fluoridated.

The bill appears stalled and is still to have its second reading.