AN energetic campaigner for fluoridation has again had his urgings rejected by council colleagues.

Coun Peter Kenyon had warned that Burnley would be betraying its children by rejecting the addition of fluoride to the town's water supplies.

But his words failed to convince the council who voted 19-15 to uphold their policy of opposition. Coun Kenyon had earlier slammed "frightened" opponents.

He said despite their scare stories, there had never been any sustained proven relationship between fluoride and adverse effects on health.

Coun Kenyon, a dentist, said local children suffered three times the national average tooth decay, the worst in England and Wales.

Fluoride, he added, provided the most cost effective way of dealing with the major public health problem for children.

Finance chairman Coun Kenyon told the council that a 70 per cent majority of tested public opinion supported its introduction into water supplies.

It was not, as was claimed, a medicine and already occurred naturally in water. There had been more than 40 years experience of fluoride addition to water.

"It is a proven public health measure. No health authority in the world denies its benefits."

But the council were unimpressed and voted to continue their opposition - despite official calls for backing from East Lancashire Health Authority.

Council leader Kath Reade said as long as there was a question over safety, fluoridation must be rejected.

She claimed there were cases where people had been ill or died from fluoride.

And why had medical experts refused to sign statements saying it was safe?

The safety question, she said, made it too big a gamble to take and the principle of compulsory mass medication was an affront to civil rights.

The Burnley decision reflects a similar recent vote by community health councillors in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale.

Both are academic, with North West Water declaring it would not extend fluoridation unless told by Parliament.

It was, added the authority, a matter for national rather than local or regional decision.

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