North West Water and water fluoridation

Campaigners for fluoridation in the north-west eagerly awaited publication of the Oral Health Strategy for England in the hope that it would include the Government's plan of action to ensure the implementation of fluoridation where most needed and most cost effective. The Government's strategy was 'in areas which do not presently enjoy fluoridated supplies, health authorities and water suppliers should now re-examine how this public health need can best be met.' This account of how health authorities in the north-west have been examining for 25 years just how this public health need can best be met, and the surprising way in which they have been treated by their water supplier over the last 7 years, calls the effectiveness of such a strategy into question