Rous Water will ‘strengthen’ links to the NSW Health Department website that contains warnings about giving bottle-fed babies fluoridated water.
But the water authority will not issue warnings directly because it doesn’t have the ‘expertise’ to deal with queries.
Rous Water delegate Vanessa Ekins, a staunch opponent of fluoridation, attempted this week to get the water authority to issue warnings to parents that bottle-fed babies should not receive water that is being dosed with fluoride at the rate Rous Water is adding to the water supply.
‘There was a lot of support for being upfront about the impacts on children and babies but they didn’t want to put the information out themselves because staff said they have no area of expertise,’ she told Echonetdaily.
The NSW Health Department warning says that bottle fed babies could be subject to dental fluorosis, and therefore ‘making up infant formulae with water that has a low fluoride content is consequently not recommended by the NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council).
Cr Ekins also clarified earlier comments regarding Richmond Valley Council having to suspend its fluoridation program about a dozen times in the past two years.
After receiving a letter from RVC general manager John Walker saying that she had brought the council into disrepute with her claims, Cr Ekins clarified that the fluoridation of water in Richmond Valley was suspended just twice in the past two years.
Prior to that however, that council was forced to suspend fluoridation on ten or more occasions between 2009 and 2011 according to information from a Freedom of Information request.
‘The GM of Richmond Valley said they had suspended fluoride only twice in the past two years but combined with the other figures it shows that they have requested suspensions in the last five years on over a dozen occasions,’ she said.
‘That shows we are dealing with unreliable technology,’ she said.
Meanwhile, an attempt by Cr Ekins to have the fluoridation of the region’s water supply suspended was again ruled unlawful.
Her motion was that ‘Rous Water suspend the addition of fluoride to the regional water supply until the National Health and Medical Research Council has completed the review into reducing fluoride concentrations from 1mg per litre to 0.7mg per litre’.
She said she would continue to put the motion up at future Rous Water meetings, and confirmed that she had not had a response to a complaint lodged against RW general manager about his refusal to allow the motion be debated.
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