AUSTRALIAN Dental Association spokesman Dr Michael Foley said he was "extremely disappointed" with the Mount Isa City Council's decision not to put fluoride in the city's water supply.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The council voted unanimously to keep fluoride out on Tuesday after months of debate and a public referendum costing the council $3000.
The ADA dentist, who travelled to Mount Isa to advise the council on Queensland Health's stance on fluoridation, said local governments should never have been left to make the final call.
"I don't doubt that the councillors are good decent people but on this occasion they've been swayed by a highly organised and coordinated anti-fluoride fringe group and their decision is not in the interest of the residents of Mount Isa," Dr Foley said.
"I've been working on fluoridation for the last 10 years and those (anti-fluoride)arguments are complete garbage," he said.
"Every town and city outside Queensland has been fluoridated 40 to 50 years and the only difference in those places is they have much better teeth."
Dr Foley described Mount Isa as living in the 'dental dark ages' where people would continue to present to Emergency with swollen jaws and rotting teeth from preventable dental health problems.
"Councils freely admit they have no expertise or scientific background and are not in a position to make an informed decision," he said.
"Public decisions should always be made based on scientific information, not scare mongering."
Mount Isa mayor Tony McGrady said people didn't need a degree in medicine or science to be a councillor, they just had to listen to the public.
"If it was a matter of Tuberculosis or Polio you'd leave it to the medical professionals but in this instance people are against the government based on what they claim is putting poison in the water," he said.
Despite publicly calling Mount Isa anti-fluoride campaigners "zealots", Cr McGrady said the council made its final decision based on the results of the referendum and the confirmation from the state government that council wouldn't have to pay for any works already done to implement fluoride.
Cr McGrady said he didn't put a vote forward during Tuesday's council meeting but made it clear his job was to defend the council's decision.
He said both sides of the debate were entitled to speak at council meetings and make their positions known throughout the democratic processes leading up the decision.
"As far as council is concerned, all of them had this information in front of them and I did the right thing by deliberately delaying the decision to give them more time," he said. "We've involved people in the process and made the decision under state legislation.
"Councillors made a unanimous decision and no doubt individual councillors were being lobbied."
