A proposal for Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield to be in charge of New Zealand's water fluoridation is hoped to get rid of the "patch-work" of different decisions around the country, instead bringing in a national approach.
Previously, a change that was working its way through Parliament on the issue was intended to see district health boards hold the decision instead of councils.
However, yesterday Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said the Government is now proposing an amendment to see that decision-making sits with the Director-General of Health.
This morning on Breakfast, Verrall said she has been been pleasantly surprised with feedback on the in-progress legislation change since yesterday's announcement.
Fluoride is naturally occurring in water, but additional fluoride is added to get teeth protection.
However, there are some who oppose its use.
"Fluoride’s claimed benefits are from topical contact with teeth, but its negative impact on health involves many more tissues than the teeth," according to Fluoride Free NZ, a group which says it's informed by some dental and health professionals.
However, Verrall this morning said children who had fluoridation in their water have a 40 per cent reduction in dental caries.
In 2019, around 6500 kids were hospitalised with tooth decay.
Currently, only 2.3 million New Zealanders are able to access water with fluoride and currently the decision whether or not to fluoridate water sits with local authorities.
"No matter how many DHBs we have, I still think having a single decision maker — the Director-General of Health — would mean everyone gets water supply according to the best evidence that we have, not patchwork of different decisions," Verrall said.
"It would just mean that everyone would have the same fluoridation processes that we have in cities like Wellington and Auckland, for example — that would be across the country."
However, while Verrall admitted sugar is a cause for tooth decay, she said a sugar tax had been ruled out for this term of Government.
"There's a lot to do in improving New Zealanders' dental health and we also have a policy for mobile dental health vans that we will be rolling out over this term," she said.
"Indeed, there are a lot of things we need to do to really lift the public health of people's teeth."
SHARE ME