Mexico Archives - Making Sense of Fluoride

Activist Spouts Nonsense – The Evidence Supports Fluoridation

Daniel Ryan — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 01:00:45 +0000

Media release

Thousands of rigorous studies – including recent large-scale data from Sweden and Canada (as well as our own famous Dunedin Study) confirm that community water fluoridation improves oral health and has no detrimental effect on IQ.

Making Sense of Fluoride President Daniel Ryan is spreading that message to counter the misinformation of anti-fluoride activist Paul Connett who is currently touring the country.

“Paul’s up to his old tricks of trying to confuse the public with shonky information,” says Mr Ryan. “This time he’s armed with a study carried out in Mexico that’s been criticised for basic flaws; for example, not identifying where the participants got their drinking water and not considering other risk factors. The Mexican study simply cannot be compared to community water fluoridation in New Zealand.”

“What’s more,” says Mr Ryan, “Lead authors of that study have gone on the record supporting fluoridation. This shows Connett’s claims to be nonsense.”

“Paul Connett relies on the lack of expertise of the media and the public to promote an ideological view that denies the evidence. Compare that to the overwhelming scientific consensus that fluoridation is an effective way to improve the dental health of children and adults.”

“We encourage anyone dealing with Paul Connett to be skeptical, question his sources and not to take his claims at face value,” says Mr Ryan. “And above all, be assured that community water fluoridation is safe.”

For more information please contact:

Dr Ken Perrott
Science adviser, MSoF
Ken.perrott@msof.nz

Daniel Ryan
MSoF President, MSoF
Daniel.ryan@msof.nz

Edit: Corrected link to the Canada study.

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Should New Zealand have a sugar tax?

Daniel Ryan — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 12:29:14 +0000

Should New Zealand have a sugar tax? Dr Rob Beaglehole is fighting for a sugar tax to help combat tooth decay, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

We at MSoF want to see fewer teeth being removed out of children’s mouths (as shown in the video) and we agree that there should be a sugar tax. The evidence is currently limited to the fact that it will help prevent caries, so ideally should be combined with other plans like fluoridation. Most of the countries that have taxed unhealthy foods have only done so in more recent years. Taxing something requires a whole-country approach, and it is difficult to see an immediate result with disease like caries where the outcomes often take a long time.

While community water fluoridation (CWF) helps to reduce tooth decay, we currently don’t have nationwide CWF – some areas still miss out. Taxes on the other hand are nationwide.

The number one reason why children are admitted to New Zealand hospitals is to have their teeth taken out under general anesthetic.Rob Beaglehole

There is data already on obesity like the study “Evidence that a tax on sugar sweetened beverages reduces the obesity rate: a meta-analysis“. This study concludes:

“Taxing SSBs

[sugar sweetened beverages] may reduce obesity. Future research should estimate price elasticities in low- and middle-income countries and identify potential health gains and the wider impact on jobs, monetary savings to the health sector, implementation costs and government revenue. Context-specific cost-effectiveness studies would allow policy makers to weigh these factors.”

Better quality data should start to appear in the next couple of years.

Mexico soda tax (roughly US$0.08 per liter) is working. Coca-Cola Femsa, reported weak Mexican sales volumes, which slipped 2.8%. Its rivals also reported a decrease in sales.

The only issue we could see is that low-income people buy more unhealthy food (which also includes sugar laden foods), and so a tax on unhealthy food would mean that low-income people would pay more tax. So it is important that the money gained from the tax be put into strategies that benefit most those children from low-income homes.

Sugar tax photo by me.

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‘Other countries don’t do it’ excuse

Daniel Ryan — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 11:34:20 +0000

I’ve heard the “other countries don’t do it” excuse many times when I bring up water fluoridation. People seem to forget that 1.1 billion people do not have access to an improved source of drinking water while another 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation. Every year, unsafe water, coupled with a lack of basic sanitation, kills at least 1.6 million children under the age of five years.

Just because a country doesn’t do something doesn’t mean that another shouldn’t do it. But even then, 377.7 million people in 25 counties have access to artificially fluoridated water supplies and a further 57.4 million people in 28 countries have naturally fluoridated supplies at the optimal level. This is no small number.
Countries like Jamaica, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Switzerland, France and Germany use salt fluoridation. With a number of these countries making sure the salt gets added to school meals and baked into commercial bread.
Countries like Bulgaria, Thailand and Chile use milk fluoridation with 800,000 children in five countries participating in milk fluoridation programmes.

People don’t realise that other countries without community water fluoridation use other fluoride methods to help with caries. So for those who are against the adjusting of fluoride in water should be fighting for a change in the fluoride method. However, this doesn’t happen. What we see once it is removed from a place is there is nothing done to replace it; because of this, the vulnerable get affected the most.

Update for clarity:
The map legend is FAKE. Real sanitation map link is below.
Fluoridation has nothing to do with sanitation. Real fluoridation map links below.

Sources:

WHO report on water and sanitation
Sanitation map
The extent of water fluoridation
WHO report on salt fluoridation
WHO report on milk fluoridation

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