N.Z. - Takes up issue with dental therapist Janet Quigley’s “angry response
Church defends fluoride stance
By Grant Shimmin and Susan Sandys
Ashburton anti-fluoride campaigner Don Church has taken issue with dental therapist team co-ordinator Janet Quigley’s “angry response to the public’s rejection of fluoridation” reported in yesterday’s Guardian.
Mr Church has defended his stance on the issue, which is believed to have played a central role in the rejection in a referendum last week of the proposal to refluoridate Ashburton’s water supply.
While he said he respected Mrs Quigley’s opinion, he had to respond to her reference to the “anti-fluoride rubbish that Don Church has been spreading”.
Mr Church said that in a letter published in the Guardian last September, he had invited ed “anyone who believed that I had provided misinformation” to challenge him “by stating the matter specifically and publicly”, allowing him the chance to back his claims with sound references.
“Since my invitation only Drs Martin Lee and Daniel Williams have challenged my statements on two occasions. In response to their challenge I publicly provided reputable references and further data that Drs Lee and Williams would have preferred to have been kept from the public,” Mr Church said.
He added he had gone further by “framing specific statements into paid advertisements”. “This requires a much greater standard of care for it exposes me to the codes of the Advertising Standards Authority commonly known as “truth in advertising”.
Among statements included in the advertisements were that, according to the Ministry of Health’s latest publicly available statistics, “dental decay for 12 year-olds (the age-index recommended by WHO) is lower in non-fluoridated Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury, than in fluoridated Otago and Southland,” he said.
Meanwhile, both Dr Lee, the Canterbury District Health Board clinical director school and community dental services and Mrs Quigley have challenged Mr Church’s claim that tooth decay in Methven, which has fluoridated water, is worse than the rest of Canterbury.
Mr Church quotes recent survey figures showing Methven 12-year-olds have an average of 2.45 decayed, missing or filled teeth, compared with 1.58 per child throughout the rest of Canterbury.
Dr Lee said it was “completely erroneous” to compare a small population such as Methven’s to the average of a large population. It was like comparing “30 kids to 6000”.
He said statistically significant comparisons between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas of New Zealand showed very clearly that people living in fluoridated areas had less tooth decay.
Mrs Quigley said therapists working in the Methven area and at Canterbury’s other only fluoridated area of Burnham Military Camp, noticed children treated there had better teeth.
“The ones that live in Methven have got far better teeth,” she said.
And it was not just the number of cavities which showed the health of teeth, but the size and seriousness of those cavities.
“You are not actually using the correct information when you are just using numbers,” she said.
Mr Church told the Guardian this week he had twice made representation to the Methven Community Board in an attempt to get fluoride removed from the water, but was unsuccessful. However, if Methven fluoride opponents chose to pursue the issue, he would help them.
March 15 2007
By Grant Shimmin and Susan Sandys
Ashburton anti-fluoride campaigner Don Church has taken issue with dental therapist team co-ordinator Janet Quigley’s “angry response to the public’s rejection of fluoridation” reported in yesterday’s Guardian.
Mr Church has defended his stance on the issue, which is believed to have played a central role in the rejection in a referendum last week of the proposal to refluoridate Ashburton’s water supply.
While he said he respected Mrs Quigley’s opinion, he had to respond to her reference to the “anti-fluoride rubbish that Don Church has been spreading”.
Mr Church said that in a letter published in the Guardian last September, he had invited ed “anyone who believed that I had provided misinformation” to challenge him “by stating the matter specifically and publicly”, allowing him the chance to back his claims with sound references.
“Since my invitation only Drs Martin Lee and Daniel Williams have challenged my statements on two occasions. In response to their challenge I publicly provided reputable references and further data that Drs Lee and Williams would have preferred to have been kept from the public,” Mr Church said.
He added he had gone further by “framing specific statements into paid advertisements”. “This requires a much greater standard of care for it exposes me to the codes of the Advertising Standards Authority commonly known as “truth in advertising”.
Among statements included in the advertisements were that, according to the Ministry of Health’s latest publicly available statistics, “dental decay for 12 year-olds (the age-index recommended by WHO) is lower in non-fluoridated Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury, than in fluoridated Otago and Southland,” he said.
Meanwhile, both Dr Lee, the Canterbury District Health Board clinical director school and community dental services and Mrs Quigley have challenged Mr Church’s claim that tooth decay in Methven, which has fluoridated water, is worse than the rest of Canterbury.
Mr Church quotes recent survey figures showing Methven 12-year-olds have an average of 2.45 decayed, missing or filled teeth, compared with 1.58 per child throughout the rest of Canterbury.
Dr Lee said it was “completely erroneous” to compare a small population such as Methven’s to the average of a large population. It was like comparing “30 kids to 6000”.
He said statistically significant comparisons between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas of New Zealand showed very clearly that people living in fluoridated areas had less tooth decay.
Mrs Quigley said therapists working in the Methven area and at Canterbury’s other only fluoridated area of Burnham Military Camp, noticed children treated there had better teeth.
“The ones that live in Methven have got far better teeth,” she said.
And it was not just the number of cavities which showed the health of teeth, but the size and seriousness of those cavities.
“You are not actually using the correct information when you are just using numbers,” she said.
Mr Church told the Guardian this week he had twice made representation to the Methven Community Board in an attempt to get fluoride removed from the water, but was unsuccessful. However, if Methven fluoride opponents chose to pursue the issue, he would help them.
March 15 2007
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