Mixing personal opinion and public interest, in their heritage-listed town hall, eight regional Queensland councillors voted on a motion that, one feared, would send their city backwards, to its “hell town” era.

The city is Gympie — one of rolling valleys, pristine coast, and — if you ask the deputy mayor — a region now bowing to the wishes and beliefs of “a few conspiracy theorists and sovereign citizens”.

In its most recent meeting, following a passive-aggressive debate, the decision was made to remove fluoride from town water sources after 15 years servicing close to half the population. The measure will come to an end in November.

Upon casting her vote, Councillor Jensen reminded council colleagues that they “did have the medical experts … giving us the real science and recommending us to leave [fluoride] in.”

The use of fluoride in tap water is supported by Queensland Health, academics and public health professionals including industry bodies the Australian Dental Association, and Australia Medical Association, which maintain its efficacy and safety in reducing decay.

The motion was moved by Councillor Allona Lahn — a self-proclaimed pro-choice advocate, who before local government ran for a seat in the senate with the Informed Medical Options party.

In campaign videos, still available online, Ms Lahn proclaims: “We are slaves and servants to the people; we are free people, we are sovereign and we deserve the right to have our say, and our choice.”

In an another she expresses her repulsion for mainstream medicine and vaccines: “We’re an experiment. The drugs are an experiment. The scientists and doctors are not that smart … even though we’re told the science is settled and the doctors are Gods … interestingly they can’t cure people of disease.”

Asked where her deep distrust of science comes from Councillor Lahn rejected the question, saying she “loves science” but argued — in the case of fluoride — “when you start researching anything there will be science on both sides of the story”.

She explained that her motion was motivated by the cost of fluoride to ratepayers, the right to have a choice, and her belief the science doesn’t stack up.

“I spoke to the people of Gympie — the overwhelming response was, and the overwhelming response on all the social media posts are, people don’t want it in the water,” she said.

Vocal minority winning the battle

She also questioned whether fluoride can have other negative health effects and told 7.30 if people want it they can “go buy your fluoride toothpaste”.

Some of her comments have dismayed paediatric dentist Dr Tim Keys, who works with children in lower-socioeconomic communities in regional Queensland.

“It may save Gympie council some immediate money but result in a significant uptick in long-term financial and biological costs for their ratepayers.

Dr Michael Foley, a former public servant, and expert in public health policy, says the arguments against fluoride may appear “superficially convincing” but are “total rubbish”.

“Studies purporting to show it lowers IQ or otherwise, are invariably poor-quality studies on very small subsets of people and can be very easily disregarded,” Dr Foley said.

“If water fluoridation caused any adverse health impacts of any sort, the Australian Medical Association would not be supporting it.”

The ‘Queensland smile’

With Gympie voting it out, there are just 17 councils — out of a total 77 — left in Queensland with fluoridation, of which most are in the south-east.

“Regional Queenslanders have the poorest dental health in the country and most regional Queenslanders don’t realise that,” Dr Foley said.

It’s known as the ‘Queensland Smile.’

 As long as fluoride has been in water in Australia, it has been subject to debate and controversy.

 “There has always been a small section of the population, which is opposed to mainstream medicine, opposed to mainstream science, opposed to vaccinations and water fluoridation and particularly with water fluoridation,” Dr Foley told 7.30.

“They’ve been at it since the 1940s and 50s,” Dr Foley said.

In the 1960s it was claimed to cause acne, brittle bones, cancer, heart disease, left-handedness and even communism.

In one interview aired on the ABC’s Four Corners program in 1963, one dentist said he had received “letters from all over Australia telling us we’re spreading communism via the water tap, and poisoning the water supply and all kinds of things”.

The claims are different today, but the anti-fluoridation crowd remains loud and prominent in the state.

Helping facilitate the anti-fluoride argument are online groups with arsenals of letter templates and information dossiers, ready to be downloaded and signed.

Dr Foley said the information is “a load of rubbish” but that the websites look convincing.

Regardless of its veracity, such evidence has been cited in regional council debates, including in Cairns — where they debated the idea of reintroducing fluoride last December.

At one stage during the debate, Cairns deputy mayor Brett Olds said the idea of implementing the measure was “tyrannical” and argued there were more important issues for pro-fluoride advocates to be concerned about.

“I really don’t think this is going to be the unicorn dust that you think it is, by putting it in and fixing all your problems … fluoride can get stuffed,” he said.

Dr Keys said he was “aware of significant pressure by fringe individuals against councillors to change these decisions”.

State government won’t intervene

Gympie’s deputy mayor Dolly Jensen argued that council should not be making the decision as health “is a matter for the state”.

But the power to make decisions on fluoride was bestowed to local governments in Queensland in 2012 by the Campbell Newman LNP government.

It ditched a short-lived four-year mandate, introduced by the preceding Labor premier Anna Bligh.

Electoral Law expert Professor Graeme Orr told 7.30 that while the decision has to be ‘in the public interest’, there is limited ability to have it reviewed in court.

But those who want fluoride in the water say councils are not well-equipped to make these decisions.

“Health should not be politicised,” Dr Kelly Hennessy of the Australian Dental Association told 7.30.

“The outcome we want is that the decision to put fluoride in the water is returned to state so that people in the Department of Health can make that decision and be supporting the local governments,” she said.

Dr Foley concurred with that assessment.

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

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