Another East Coast council has brought the fluoridation debate to the fore once more.

The Deputy Mayor of the Byron Shire thinks it is a good time to revisit the concerns over the practice of adding fluoride to public water supplies, after the Ballina Shire voted to move ahead with its fluoride plans.

Byron residents voted against adding the element to its water supply several years ago, but Deputy Mayor Dianne Woods says the issue may have settled enough to look at it again rationally, saying: “Look my kids grew up in Sydney with fluoride in the water and their teeth have been fantastic... if there are some reservations about it, that's fair enough, but I think the benefits far outweigh any potential cost to the community and its health... we do need the experts to come up and visit us again... I think the last we debated it we just had someone [speaking] against it.”

The Byron Mayor, Simon Richardson, says he is comfortable with the Council's current position.

The issue is possibly most contentious in the Lismore shire, which next week will vote on whether to add fluoride to its supplies for the third time.

The overwhelming opinion in the dental and broader scientific communities is that while fluoride is a known poison; the concentrations and solutions added to water supplies are far too small to have a toxic effect, the benefit of preventing demineralisation and tooth decay is well proven and there has been no credible evidence of the often-touted links to Down’s syndrome, autism or other conditions.