BMJ  2008;336:353 (16 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39490.749537.C2

News

Government is setting aside £42m for water fluoridation

Owen Dyer

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The government is to set aside £42m ({euro}56m; $82m) for health authorities in England that choose to add fluoride to drinking water, the health secretary, Alan Johnson, told parliament last week.

It is planning to encourage health authorities to consult locally on the matter. Health authorities have been able to decide whether water supplies have fluoride added since the passage of the Water (Fluoridation) Act 1985. They have been actively encouraged to do so since MPs amended the act in a free vote in 2003. The law demands, however, that authorities first hold consultations with all interested local parties.

Mr Johnson said last week that the government believed that adding fluoride to drinking water was "an effective and relatively easy way to help address health inequalities—giving children from poorer backgrounds a dental health boost that can last a lifetime."

But some of the scientists who led the research that . . . [Full text of this article]


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