The Minister of Health, Nissim Dahan, has ordered that the ruling requiring municipalities to add fluoride to their drinking water at their own expense, be put on hold until such time as a re-assessment has been carried out by the Health Ministry to determine if this measure is necessary. The regulation, instituted by Dahan’s predecessor, Yehoshua Matsa, was intended to go into full effect in November, but plans have been stopped at the request of the Chairman of the Labor Party faction, Knesset Minister (M.K.) Efi Oshaya.

The purpose of adding fluoride to the water is to strengthen the teeth of children through age 14 and to prevent dental caries. The rationale behind Oshaya’s request is that the target group in need of the procedure amounts to a mere 4% of the population. Yet, fluoride is to be added to the water of the public at large without the possibility of monitoring the dosage and the fluoride may also be damaging to the teeth and to internal organs of the body. With the same warped logic he comments one can demand that aspirin be added to drinking water for the sake of the relatively small group of people needing their blood to be thinned.

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