Call to add fluoride to Rotorua water

Health officials are again pushing for fluoridated water as new figures show Rotorua is facing an epidemic of rotting teeth.

Less than a year after Rotorua District Council voted unanimously not to fluoridate the city's public water supply, a Primary Health Organisation (PHO) Health Rotorua has made a submission to the council's draft annual plan for fluoride to be added to the water.

Councillors are meeting this week to consider the proposal.

In Taupo, where water is fluoridated, about half of all five-year-olds, on average, have decay-free teeth.

That compares with 39 per cent of five-year-olds with no tooth decay in Rotorua, where water is not fluoridated.

The submission claims Rotorua is suffering from an epidemic of dental disease, shown by the rising number of people every year needing surgery to remove teeth.

Rotorua's Fluoride Free Water Group spokesman Martin Sharp said health officials had made it clear they would keep fighting for fluoridation.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)