Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on the potential health risks to formula fed infants from their exposure to fluoride due to its incorporation into the public water system; if her attention has been drawn to studies which suggest that formula fed infants are exposed to up to 250 times the daily recommended intake of fluoride due to their exposure to the public water supply; the studies that have been undertaken by her Department to discover the effects of such exposure; the measures she will take to combat this health risk; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36821/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Research has been carried out by the Oral Health Services Research Centre in Cork on contract for my Department. The results of this research are available on the Department's website — www.dohc.ie in presentation format. The research found that a newborn baby weighing 3 kg would have to drink 15 litres of water fluoridated at 1 part per million to ingest the level of fluoride associated with any ill effects.

The research findings also showed that fluoridated water is safe for use in baby food; fluoride intake is well within the safe level; that the mean acute exposure of infants to fluoride in areas served by fluoridated water supplies was estimated to be between 0.11 and 0.14 mg/kg weight per day and that these predicted intakes were well below the intake of fluoride associated with acute toxic effects (5mg fluoride (F(-)/kg body weight).