Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings of the paper entitled Assessment of Lake Water Quality and Eutrophication Risk in an Agricultural Irrigation Area: A Case Study of the Chagan Lake in Northeast China published by Xuemei Liu et al on 14 November 2019, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies on water fluoridation of the research findings that increased environmental fluoride levels contribute significantly to eutrophication.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has advised that eutrophication of lakes is driven by excess nutrients, phosphorus and nitrogen, the main sources of which are agriculture and sewage effluent. Fluoridation of drinking water supplies is not considered to have an effect and the low levels of fluoride that occur naturally in most waters in the United Kingdom are not felt to be an influence on the risks and impacts of eutrophication.