Who will decide whether an areas water supply is fluoridated?
The Water bill amendment specifies that strategic health authorities in England – and in Wales, the Welsh assembly – can ask water companies to fluoridate the water supply within its catchment area. According to ministers, this will only take place if local communities decide in favour of fluoridation. The public health minister Melanie Johnson told the Commons on July 1: “I emphasise that no fluoridation scheme will take place unless there has been wide ranging consultation in which both the proponents and opponents of fluoridation have been encouraged to participate and in which the majority of the population have indicated that they are in favour.