Preliminary results. Click to enlarge. Waikato University student Luke Oldfield was awarded a summer research grant to establish what role vested interests in the natural health industry had played in Hamilton City Council's fluoride tribunal process. The project is called "Public Integrity and Participatory Democracy: Hamilton City Council's Water Fluoridation Decision". This evening [...]
US elections show majority support for fluoridation. Several communities in the US have been holding fluoridation referendum alongside the mid-term elections. Not all results are in yet but indications are that any swing against fluoridation has died in the water. Support for this social health policy has been about 60 or 70% - ironically similar to [...]
Over the past week, the Advertising Complaints Authority (ASA) has upheld three complaints made against the anti-fluoride group (Fluoride Action Network of NZ) FANNZ. The complaints involved several advertisements authorized by FANNZ and placed in the Kapiti News earlier this year. The Kapiti News stated that it had received many phone calls from agitated members [...]
Fluoride Free Hamilton is up to their tactics of misrepresentation and scaremongering again. They are raising financial scares with the assertion that the "unbudgeted cost of getting the fluoride plant back into working order" is $100,000. Wrong. The council had said "Costs for council to reintroduce fluoride is $100,000, which has been considered as part [...]
I see that Pat McNair has posted the following on the Fluoride Free Hamilton page. Since I can't comment there, I'm going to respond below, as it seems her recollection of what was said by the speaker is somewhat faulty. "I attended the free public lecture by Dr Graham Saunders, senior lecturer in inorganic chemistry [...]
A colleague (an analytical chemist) has done the maths for us on the amount of water someone would have to drink in order to achieve a fluoride load commensurate with chronic fluorosis (around 20mg/kg dry matter in the diet). Food varies quite a bit in its water content, but they've assumed an average of 50% [...]
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 [...]
We've had quite a few comments lately along the lines of wanting fluoride removed so that we are drinking 'pure' water. However, the cessation of fluoridation by itself won't achieve that. Hamilton's water hasn't had fluoride added since supplies ran out after the HCC tribunal's decision. However, we're still getting 0.3ppm F- in our water [...]
"He put at least 6 people to sleep". Click to read article. It's been a fine afternoon in Hamilton so I thought I would wander in to the Fluoride Free Hamilton Information meeting. Should have known better. Didn't stay long as the chairman announced first thing that the audience had to remain quiet [...]
Each year the New Zealand Skeptics bestows the Bent Spoon Award for the New Zealand organisation which has shown the most egregious gullibility or lack of critical thinking in public coverage of, or commentary on, a science-related issue. The 2013 Bent Spoon Award is awarded to the Hamilton City Council. For ignoring the decision of [...]
