A decision to hand over water fluoridation decisions to local councils in Queensland a decade ago has resulted in more than a million Queenslanders having less access to fluoridated water, putting them at a greater risk of dental disease.
New research, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, has found the 2012 decision to devolve responsibility for water fluoridation decisions and funding from the Queensland Government to local councils has put people at even greater risk of dental decay.
As a result of the decision, 61 out of 77 local government areas in Queensland do not have fluoridated water, affecting 1 050 799 people.
The research, co-authored by Christopher Sexton, a biostatistician at The University of Queensland, found a strong association between socio-economic status and access to fluoridated water.
“In this study, we investigated area-level access to fluoridated drinking water in Queensland and its relationship with local socio-economic resources,” Mr Sexton and his colleagues wrote.
“Access to fluoridated water can reduce inequalities in oral health by benefiting people at all socio-economic levels, but socio-economically advantaged regions often have access to fluoridated water sooner and for longer,” they wrote.
The findings
Their research found a strong association between socio-economic status and access to fluoridated water, with 79.4% of the Queensland population (4 050 168 people) having access to fluoridated water.
It also found Queenslanders living in lower socio-economic status areas have less access fluoridated water, putting them at greater risk of dental decay (known as dental caries).
“Our findings highlight the socio-economic differences that can exacerbate social gradients of dental health,” Mr Sexton and his colleagues wrote.
“Water fluoridation cost-effectively reduces the prevalence of dental caries by 25–40%.”
The researchers noted that the benefits of drinking fluoridated water would be of most benefit to people of lower socio-economic status, since these people are at greater risk of dental caries and less likely to have access to other forms of oral health care.
Responsibility “must be returned”
The responsibility for water fluoridation must be handed back to the state government, Mr Sexton and his colleagues argue.
“The Queensland government should revise its water fluoridation policy and support local councils, especially in regional areas, to implement water fluoridation,” they wrote.
“The alternative is to accept poorer access to fluoridated water in poorer areas of Queensland, where the burden of oral disease is already high.”
- Sam Hunt