The idea of finding more failures of the previous Dubbo Regional Council is what keeps current mayor Mathew Dickerson "up at night".
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The mayor told the Daily Liberal he couldn't believe it when the Chief Executive Officer [CEO] Murray Wood confirmed to him that Dubbo hasn't had fluoride in its water for the past 3.5 years.
"Lots of people tell me back when they were kids they used to have the pink tablets which was their parents putting fluoride in their water so that you can have healthy teeth... and people assume we don't need those tablets because we have a system that puts fluoride in our water. No we haven't," he said.
It all came about when a friend of Mr Dickerson's wife mentioned to her over coffee that there was no fluoride in the water.
"She thought that couldn't be right and came home and said to me we weren't putting fluoride in water and I said that couldn't be right," he said.
Cr Dickerson then checked with the CEO who thought the idea was "crazy" but he would check to be sure.
"We checked with operational staff who then said 'actually we haven't been doing it' and reports showed we hadn't done it since January 2019," he said.
Subsequently council also received a letter from NSW Health confirming they weren't putting fluoride in the water.
It isn't a small error, it is 3.5 years of not putting fluoride in the water.
- Mayor Mathew Dickerson
Cr Dickerson couldn't fault DRC staff who had reported the situation to upper levels of council and filed reports to NSW Health.
"But the report also said 'we're going to address it', but the staff at the water plant haven't got the authority to go and spend the amount of money they need to spend to fix the problem," he said.
"They were waiting for the CEO and they actually got public works engaged in the early days to look at the problem but then they just stopped for some reason."
While a report has been given to council that details the lack of fluoridation of Dubbo's water it doesn't explain one particular issue.
"They obviously don't talk about the complete failure of management in the previous council to address this incredibly important issue," Cr Dickerson said.
"To me the biggest issue I have with not putting fluoride in the water is it breaches the trust the community has in council.
"It isn't a small error, it is 3.5 years of not putting fluoride in the water."
Cr Dickerson pointed out that not putting fluoride in the water or letting the community know is a breach of number 58 in the Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies Act 1957.
"We don't have a solution yet but we need the community to know about it and to tell them we've identified the problem and will go about fixing it," he said.
Cr Dickerson said they will try and rectify the problem by June 2023.
"We will work to get it done as quick as possible but that's a realistic time line to get it done," he said.
"It seems unforgivable of the management of the last council that they didn't deal with this."
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Cr Dickerson has spoken to Mr Wood about auditing a range of council functions to find out what other council things "aren't working".
"I keep thinking, I've found the last of the problems that were left by the last council and then another one pops up," he said.
"Obviously this isn't one of those things we were expecting, but things like this keep popping up, surely we've got to get to the bottom of the problems soon."
Council will now need to find the money to upgrade the fluoridation in the plant that "should have already been done three and a half years ago".
Health effects can vary
Associate Professor Matt Hopcraft, a dental public health expert and CEO of the Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch, said water fluoridation is one of the top 10 most important public health measures.
"There is good evidence that shows that adjusting the amount of fluoride in the water to around one part per million helps to prevent tooth decay," he said.
A recent review by the National Health and Medical Research Council found that water fluoridation reduces tooth decay by 26 per cent to 44 per cent in children and adolescents, and by 27 per cent in adults.
Mr Hopcraft confirmed that it was unlikely the lack of fluoride in the drinking water over the past 3.5 years would affect dental development.
"It is possible that it would have increased the likelihood of tooth decay," he said.
"We tend to see more tooth decay in regional and rural areas, and water fluoridation helps to reduce that disadvantage. There tend to be higher rates of decay in non-fluoridated rural communities compared to fluoridated areas."
Until the water becomes fluoridated Mr Hopcraft said it was important to maintain good oral health by reducing the amount of added sugar you eat and to drink less than six teaspoons per day, brush your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and cleaning in between your teeth.
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