Norman Swan

They've looked at the dose of fluoride.

Because if fluoride is associated with lower IQ, then the higher the fluoride level, the more likely it should be to reduce IQ.

Not school performance, because school performance, there's all sorts of other things involved in school performance.

Your family situation, the quality of the school you go to.

socioeconomic status, all sorts of things.

It's not a good measure.

It's not a measure at all of your IQ.

So they've refined that.

They've taken a lot of the variables into account and shown there's no effect of fluoridation on adolescent IQ.

Get in there, protect your children's teeth.

So, and one thing I do want to say is some people say, well, why would you have fluoride in the water supply when you can wash your teeth with fluoridated, if you really believe this, you can wash your teeth with fluoridated toothpaste.

The reason you fluoridate water, be absolutely clear, is that people who are disadvantaged, whose lives are complex, who've got all sorts of issues to deal with, and they haven't got the time to actually devote to those preventive activities, which we've got the luxury of doing, those children don't necessarily get access to fluoridated toothpaste.

And what fluoridation of the water supply does is it equalizes dental health.

And a really important public health issue.

And they've had warnings on products for a long time now saying it can cause anaphylaxis and it's not changed the rate of anaphylaxis.

In other words, people either ignore those warnings or just they're not effective.

So there you are.

You can make comments to the TGA on this and the recommendation of the health report is steer clear.

And despite all the stuff on the pharmacist's shelf, there's not a single cold and flu preparation on the shelf that makes any difference at all.

Agree.