Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Neither Deputy Ross nor I is a scientist but one thing I remember from the study of mathematics many years ago is the concept of "spurious correlation", which I am sure Deputy Ross will understand. There might be a particular incidence or pattern, for example, a high incidence of diabetes or cardiovascular condition in this or that county or country and fluoridation in the water but there is no causal link demonstrated between the two. Deputy Ross calls it a parallel. That is what I mean by spurious correlation.

All EU states have fluoride in one form or another at the centre of their public policy. For some European countries water fluoridation is impracticable due to the large number of separate water sources. Many of them choose salt or milk fluoridation. Major fluoridating countries include the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Israel, Singapore, Hong Kong, Colombia and Chile. Fluoridation coverage in the USA increased by approximately 24 million people between 2002 and 2012. Population coverage in Australia also increased in 2012. Almost 5.8 million people in the UK have fluoride added to their water, another 330,000 have naturally fluoridated water. Approximately 10% of the population of Spain has fluoridated water. Salt fluoridation is practised in many South and Central American countries and also in the EU, notably in France, Germany and other central European states. We are not an outlier in this respect.

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