I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the recent council meeting to witness the arguments put forward by the campaign to cease water fluoridation in Gympie.
I have read the reasons used to oppose the wholly logical and scientifically sound rationale for adding fluoride to our drinking water but it would have been remarkable to see, in person, someone say these things with a straight face.
The anti-fluoridation agenda is similar to the anti-vax agenda in that they are a sign that people have become so used to having good health without worry of epidemics or rotten teeth and so uneducated as to why, that they believe we are home free on these issues.
Not the case.
Not statistically, in any case.
The National Health and Medical Research Council has estimated that for every dollar spent on water fluoridation, between $7 and $18 is saved in dental expenses.
Gympie Council spent about $250,000 pa on fluoridation.
That means that between $1.75 million and $4.5 million was saved amongst those who received fluoridated water.
Gympie can expect to welcome a few new dentists in the next 4 or so years to take advantage of the increase in business.
Of course, new families won’t want to come here if they know that tooth decay in their children may well be a consequence.
If Gympie Council voters don’t pay closer attention to who we elect to council, we well could end up living on a flat earth, with no phone reception because 5G causes, well, almost everything bad, no chlorine in our water, because it’s an additive, and doctors leaving town because they aren’t allowed to give vaccines.
I imagine that there are already researchers lined up to measure the change in dental problems faced by the Gympie population in the coming years.
I suggest that the apparatus for fluoridating water be left in place because the next set of councillors may be intelligent enough to reinstate the process, because of the social good that it does, and save the council $100,000.
Steve Hall,
Cooroy
