VIDEO: Why are Queensland councils voting to remove fluoride from their water?

FOUR CORNERS (1963):  The fluoridation of water supplies has become the most bitterly contested public health measure of our time. 

TOM HARTLEY, REPORTER: In the mid-20th century, scientists successfully argued the benefits of adding fluoride to town water but it wasn’t without contest. 

FOUR CORNERS (1963): We have letters from all over Australia telling us we’re spreading communism via the water tap and we’re poisoning the water supply and all kinds of things.

TOM HARTLEY: Regardless, public health officials pushed ahead - fluoridating supplies across the country – but Queensland did it differently. 

DR MICHAEL FOLEY, PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCHER:  All other Australian states and territories said, well, under the Australian constitution, health is a state government responsibility. The Queensland government at the time said, well, it's a water treatment issue so let's just give it to local councils.

TOM HARTLEY:  That changed in 2008, when the Queensland Labor government took control, mandating fluoride though that only lasted four years, ditched by the state LNP – which allowed councils to opt out.

DR KELLY HENNESSY, AUSTRALIAN DENTAL ASSOC.:  That changed everything. There's been several local governments actively take fluoride out of their water since then.

MICHAEL FOLEY: Queenslanders living regionally and remotely still have the worst dental health in Australia.

TOM HARTLEY:  After 15 years of fluoridation the latest city to abandon the measure was Gympie, about two hours drive north of Brisbane where half the city was receiving fluoridated town water. 

Late last month councillors met here to vote on a decision that would impact around 58,000 residents. The outcome was described by one of those councillors as potentially sending the city back to its ‘hell town’ era. 

ALLONA LAHN, GYMPIE REGION COUNCILLOR:  I don’t believe in mass medication so therefore I would like the councillors today to take that into consideration. 

TOM HARTLEY:  The motion was moved by Councillor Allona Lahn - a self-proclaimed pro-choice advocate who, before local government, had a crack at federal politics with the ‘Informed Medical Options Party'.     

ALLONA LAHN:  And so merely now we are slaves and servants to the people. We are free people, we are sovereign, and we deserve the right to have our say in our choice.

This is the thing, we're an experiment. The drugs are an experiment. The scientists and doctors are not that smart.

TOM HARTLEY:  I met with Councillor Lahn outside town hall who explained her motion was motivated by cost to ratepayers, the right to have a choice, and her belief the science doesn’t stack up. 

ALLONA LAHN:  There's heaps of research over from America. Cochrane reports, there's science on both sides. When you start researching anything, there will be science on both sides of the story. 

TOM HARTLEY:  While the city’s Mayor supported Ms Lahn’s point of view and motion, the deputy, certainly did not. 

DOLLY JENSEN, GYMPIE DEPUTY MAYOR:  I can hear the banjos playing. We are just putting ourselves back into the hell town era. 

TOM HARTLEY:  What did you mean by that? 

DOLLY JENSEN:  I just meant in 20 years’ time, you'll probably see our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren with every second tooth missing and we will just look like hillbilly rednecks. 

TOM HARTLEY:  Dolly Jensen is worried what it'll mean for the vulnerable and disadvantaged and so is long-serving local dentist, Paul Dixon.

PAUL DIXON, DENTIST: I just feel quite saddened really, that there's going to be a lot of people who, and young kids and people coming in and having to have pain and suffering because of this decision.   

TOM HARTLEY:  Some residents claim, they didn’t even get a choice in the matter because the council didn’t bother with any formal community consultation. 

And you are someone who claims to be pro-choice, but effectively the community haven't had their choice in whether or not their water's fluoridated. Do you see that as being a bit hypocritical? 

ALLONA LAHN:  I did my research; I spoke to the people. The overwhelming response was, and the overwhelming response on all the social media posts are people don't want it in the water. 

TOM HARTLEY:  On social media. What about all the people who don't have access to social media or the internet or those sorts of things? 

ALLONA LAHN:  And like I said, I've spoken to many people, and they don't want fluoride in the water. If you want a choice, go buy fluoride toothpaste. It's much more cost effective. It's not going to cost a bomb to the state government or council. It's effective, put it on your teeth if you want fluoride. 

TOM HARTLEY:  A lot of the studies say though, this is more aimed towards the more vulnerable people who don't have potentially even the ability to purchase fluoridated products. What about those people? 

ALLONA LAHN:  Well, the state government can subsidise that and give out free fluoride toothpaste. It's pretty simple. 

TOM HARTLEY:  With Gympie voting out there are just 17 councils out of a total 77 left in Queensland with fluoridation, seen here in dark blue, and mostly in the Southeast. The light blue areas have naturally fluoridated water.   

KELLY HENNESSY:  I think there's always going to be ideas that are against mainstream science that's always going to exist. It always has existed, and it will continue to exist, but we know that the science shows that it's a benefit and that there's no disadvantages at safe levels.

TOM HARTLEY:  The latest population study by world-leading water researcher Professor Loc Do   surveyed almost 8,000 school-aged children in Queensland and found that in newly fluoridated areas decay was reducing, and in non-fluoridated areas, there were no changes. 

What is it about that that you are so sceptical of?

ALLONA LAHN:  The science, even the latest study that we've just spoken about before by Queensland University, it actually says it's not there. There's other science out there, better science to determine whether or not fluoride is beneficial for the teeth or, well, that report is not there to determine the science of fluoridisation.

TOM HARTLEY:  The researcher who led that says it is there to be used as a tool which can then determine that fluoridation is having great success in the regions that are fluoridated. 

ALLONA LAHN:  And we haven't seen the questionnaire, we don't know what the questions are. I've just pointed out that most people don't even know whether or not they've got fluoride in the water.

TOM HARTLEY:  Helping facilitate the anti-fluoride argument are online groups with letter templates and information dossiers, ready to be downloaded, signed and fired off by anyone so inclined. 

MICHAEL FOLEY:  And if you go to their websites, I defy anybody not to be superficially convinced by their evidence. It is superficially quite convincing. 

TOM HARTLEY: Regardless of its veracity, such evidence has been cited in regional council meetings, including in Cairns which voted to keep fluoride out of the water last December. 

CAIRNS COUNSELLOR:  I just don’t think this is going to be the unicorn dust that you think it is, by putting it in, it is not going to fix all your problems. I’m happy to support this motion, fluoride can get stuffed, thanks. 

SPEAKER:  All those in favour. 

KELLY HENNESSY:  It's not a water supply issue. It's a health issue and really it should be returned to the state government at the state government level so that the people who make decisions about health are actually making decisions about this as well.

TOM HARTLEY:  The Health Minister Tim Nicholls wouldn’t answer questions about the influence of anti-fluoridationists on public health decision making but backed his department’s advice to encourage local governments to “adopt and maintain the provision of water fluoridation.” 

DOLLY JENSEN:  We make decisions for rates, roads, and rubbish, not health. That's a matter for state.