TOP STORY: Soft drinks canned from DHB

ALEX HICKEY
A Hawke's Bay dental expert's horror at having to pull out four teeth and put 11 fillings into the mouth of a four-year-old boy has resulted in a ban on soft drinks at the region's health facilities.
David Marshall, a Napier dentist for more than 30 years, could not believe the shocking state of the child's teeth. But he was further shocked at what sat in the corridor outside the operating theatre door where he performed the "brutal procedure" - a vending machine stuffed full of fizzy, sugary drinks.
Dr Marshall believes such machines are the root cause of tooth decay in children.
This particular dispensing machine was a little too close to home and work for his liking, so he decided to do something about it.
Dr Marshall, a member of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board, called for the immediate removal of the offending drinks from all public vending machines on the board's property.
He succeeded and the board will follow the lead of some of the region's schools, such as Wairoa College, in implementing a ban on fizzy drinks.
"As I walked out of the theatre entrance, there in the main corridor was a large vending machine, and in it several shelves of the ubiquitous Coca Cola," he said.
The irony was not lost on him.
"If we are going to be serious about diet as an important factor in the health of our population, then the contents of such vending machines in our hospitals and health centres surely need reviewing," he said.
Extracting teeth from a young child was often a "brutal surgical procedure" and he would support any measure that reduced the possibility of that outcome.
If celebrity chef Jamie Oliver could change the eating habits of an entire nation (the United Kingdom) then the board could ban sugary drinks from its facilities, Dr Marshall said.
Hawke's Bay DHB chairman Kevin Atkinson agreed.
The board had to set an example and could not on the one hand ask the region's schools to prevent tuck shops from selling products that damaged children's teeth while at the same time selling the same items itself to patients, public and staff, he said.
There was also support, in the wider political arena, for any move to halt the consumption of too much sugar by Kiwi children.
The Green Party launched a new food policy to improve diets by setting up a $20 million nutrition fund - partly funded through a levy on soft drinks.
Green Party MP Sue Kedgley said soft-drink vending machines and fast-food advertisements would be banned.
Children were suffering because too many were eating too much "high salt, high fat, high sugar foods," she said.
Board chief Chris Clarke supported the spirit of the proposed ban but questioned the practicalities of implementing it.
There had been similar issues with the smoking ban but some staff, and patients, still wanted to smoke - they might also want to drink sugary drinks.
He would support the board's move to remove soft drinks from vending machines in public areas but wanted to consult staff before removing drinks from private areas.