Fluoridation – yes or no

No useful purpose would be served by re-stating here all that has been said. A short summary, however, of the pros and cons of fluoridation might be of value to those who have not yet cast their votes. The Anti-fluoridationists contend that the addition of fluoride to the water could be harmful; that there should be freedom of choice; that the benefit to children's teeth is negligible; that fluoride corrodes pipes and that many towns which fluoridated the water have abolished the scheme later. Proponents of the scheme include doctors, dentists, scientists, and the Health Department. Their case is a denial of the medical, scientific and dental arguments raised by their opponents and they point to the benefits derived by children in Hastings, a city with a fluoridated water supply.

We do not exhort you to vote either way, but we would ask everyone with a vote to exercise that right, and vote on what is one of the most important referendums ever held in Nelson.

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By the time this issue is published, many Nelsonians will have voted on the referendum offered by the City Council on what has been the most contentious subject to come before electors for a long, long time – fluoridation of the city's water supply. The proponents and opponents of fluoridation have filled column after column of advertising and news space in the "Mail" with their views and the climax of the campaigns waged by both sides was a meeting in the School of Music at which each side put its case. As can be seen from the picture above, the hall was filled to overflowing – some indication of the interest this subject aroused.

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Speakers, Mr S. I. Russell (Mayor), Dr Derek Taylor, Director of Health Education, Wellington, Mr R. B. Beresford (dentist), Dr.D. C. Low (all of whom put the case for fluoridation), Mrs B. Eyre (deputy - mayor and chairman), and Dr Eva Hill (who spoke for anti-fluorldationists).