Dr. Paul Connett, director of the US anti-fluoride activist organisation Fluoride Action Network (FAN), will be speaking in NZ next week. He is accompanied by Dr. William Hirzy, a staff member of FAN. They will speak at meetings organised by Fluoride Free NZ (FFNZ) – a local activist group affiliated to FAN – in Thames [...]
Some things don't age gracefully, but community water fluoridation is looking great at the age of 70. This inexpensive strategy saves money and continues to reduce the rate of tooth decay for children and adults. Yes, there was a lot of research conducted about fluoridation in the 1940s and ’50s, but many more studies have [...]
Here in New Zealand anti-fluoridationists continue to attack the statement: that there is '40% less tooth decay, on average, for children in fluoridated areas'. This fact comes from the 2009 New Zealand Oral Health Survey (NZOHS) which had sufficient statistical power and was adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, and neighbourhood deprivation. There was a New [...]
This is my second response to Associate Professor Rita Barnett-Rose to her paper “Compulsory water fluoridation: justifiable public health benefit or human experimental research without informed consent”. Again I wish to thank Rita for acknowledging in that papers should be referenced accurately by using citations to the original sources rather than simply referring to activist [...]
There is a new society in NZ called "Society for Science Based Healthcare" (SBH). It is a New Zealand based advocacy group that aims to promote a scientific basis for healthcare in New Zealand and oppose non-science based areas of healthcare. Recently you might have heard of them from their latest win. MSoF and SBH [...]
I don't usually worry about opinion pieces, but the “Fluoridation is false security” piece (on page 2) by Lois Titchener had spread around the anti-fluoride groups as fact. My reply (on page 2): "Your newspaper published a letter entitled ‘fluoridation is false security’ which I believe is misleading. Hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFA) is no more toxic than [...]
We had a meeting with FANNZ, after a 3-hour discussion we have finally convinced them that fluoridated water just has fluoride ions and not fluorine (an extremely reactive gas) and fluoride ions are safe to drink at 0.7-1.0ppm. These fluoride ions are the same, natural or otherwise. They apologised for the confusion and have decided [...]
The online advocacy group, Making Sense of Fluoride are welcoming the recent High Court decision to dismiss an attempt by New Health New Zealand to find the fluoridation of water unlawful. The decision will remove any legal or judicial questions that may have concerned councils, allowing them to go ahead with water fluoridation. However, New [...]
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 [...]
