For a while now I have thought the mistake of the Hamilton City Council was a cloud with a silver lining. It was a wake-up call to people concerned with evidence based approaches to health and society. A warning that anti-scientific groups were getting far more influence than they deserved.

So news of that decision has led to all sorts of activity defending good science. In some ways it is very similar to the way that climate scientists and their supporters have eventually organised to fight back against the highly organised and well-financed climate change denial machine.

This fight back against the anti-fluoridationists has taken a variety of forms ranging from institutional organisation around the referendum down to individual activity. An important tool has been online social media like blogs, Twitter and Facebook – venues which until recently the anti-fluoridation groups have dominated. It is heartening when googling now to see that Fluoride Alert does not have the dominance it once had – especially in New Zealand.

Facebook groups like ours are an important part of this fight back. There are several other Facebook pages playing a similar role in NZ, but I think more will develop internationally. An example I saw today was a new Facebook group formed in Lethbridge in Canada to fight a local campaign. Very new but a good start.

See:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/627025914004854/

http://ldskeptics.ca/2013/09/28/pro-fluoride-petition-planned/

So thank you FANNZ, Fluoride Free Hamilton and all your supporters. You may have pulled the wool over the eyes of the Hamilton City Council and won a single battle in Hamilton with the fluoride “tribunal” but you have given New Zealanders a needed wake up call. Basically you are responsible for the fact that people are fighting back and supporting good science.