Experts want Fluoride in Bottled Water

Fluoride could be added to bottled water following a reported increase in child tooth decay.

Health, consumer and industry groups made a united call for Food Standards Australia New Zealand to remove its ban on adding fluoride to bottled water, Fairfax newspapers reported.

An Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health survey last year found permanent tooth decay in 14- and 15-year-olds had risen more than 70 per cent since 2002, while about one in five children under the age of five had at least one filling.

Consumer advocate Choice said allowing bottlers to add fluoride to their water would help stop the rise in tooth decay.

"We want people to have the option of fluoride in their bottled water and we want the manufacturers to clearly label which ones have fluoride and which ones don't," Choice spokeswoman Indira Naidoo said.

Australian Dental Association chief executive Robert Boyd-Boland backed the call. "It has been a concern to us that there has been an increased consumption of bottled water that doesn't contain fluoride and that this could be, in part, a factor in the increased decay rates that are being evidenced in children."

But Australian Beverages Council chief executive Tony Gentile, in Canberra lobbying the federal government to end the fluoride ban to open up a new product line, said bottled water was not linked to the increase in children's tooth decay.

The council has applied to the food standards body for permission to add fluoride to bottled water, but this could take up to 12 months.

But there was no scientific proof fluoride would prevent tooth decay or was safe, Fluoridation Federation of Australia chairman Glen Walker said.

Resource: AAP