§ Mr. Lawrenceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Burton on 1st November 1976, it is impracticable to state what would be an optimum dose beyond which the intake of fluoride into the human system might have harmful effects upon the health of adults and children.
§ Mr. MoyleIn my reply to the hon. Member's Question on 1st November—[Vol. 919, c.53–4.]—I explained that an optimum dose could not be stated because of normal variations in dietary intake and that the object of fluoridation was not to provide a specific dose of fluoride but to reproduce the effects of the most satisfactory concentration found naturally in water supplies. Before the start of the fluoridation studies in the United Kingdom, estimates of the average 152W dietary intake of children and adults were taken into account before deciding that the optimum concentration of fluoride in water supplies in this country was one part per million. The report on the first five years of the fluoridation studies in the United Kingdom dealt with this aspect, and this report and that on the first 11 years, published in 1962 and 1969 —Reports on Public Health and Medical Subjects Nos. 105 and 122—concluded that fluoridation of water supplies at this optimum concentration was a highly effective way of reducing dental decay and was completely safe. In its report "Fluoride, Teeth and Health" (Pitman Medical, 1976) the Royal College of Physicians confirmed that there was no evidence that the consumption of water containing one part per million of fluoride in a temperate climate was associated with any harmful effect.