§ Mr. Bowdenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will institute 344W a study of the evidence offered in the recent case in Pittsburgh in order to ensure that there is no possibility of a link between water fluoridation and increased cancer deaths.
§ Mr. Moyle,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 27th November 1978 ; Vol. 959, c. 51], gave the following information:
I have studied the judgment and other documents, and have made other inquiries, about this case in the court of common pleas of Allengheny County, Pennsylvania, but these do not cause me to alter my statement in the debate on the Adjournment on 10th November that the allegations of a fluoridation-cancer link are groundless.—[Vol. 957, c. 1468–82.]
I also understand that the preliminary decree made by this court—requiring the cessation of fluoridation in a part of Pittsburgh and some outlying districts—has been set aside by a higher court pending an appeal, and that fluoridation meanwhile continues in the area concerned. Fluoridation in the major part of Pittsburgh, where it was introduced in 1952, is unaffected by these proceedings.