NZ - Hot start for fluoridation hearing

Anti-fluoride campaigners made up the bulk of the audience at day one of the two-day tribunal into the future of water fluoridation in the New Plymouth district.
MATT RILKOFF Last updated 05:00 30/09/2011SharePrint Text Size 2 comments ANDY JACKSONAnti-fluoride campaigners made up the bulk of the audience at day one of the two-day tribunal into the future of water fluoridation in the New Plymouth district.Relevant offersTouted by one side as the great health leveller and the other as a dangerous poison, water fluoridation hit New Plymouth District councillors with both barrels yesterday.
However, their weight of numbers was matched by the gravitas of the smaller Taranaki District Health Board group, which was the other main submitter on the day.

For the first two hours of the tribunal, councillors heard and asked questions of Whangarei dentist Lawrence Brett and Hamilton doctor Peter Scanlon of anti-fluoride group Fluoride Action Network New Zealand.

During that time, the argument against putting fluoride into water supplies to reduce tooth decay seemed rock solid. Among many things, Mr Brett told councillors the best teeth in the country were found in the non-fluoridated towns in the South Island, and it was diet that determined dental health, not fluoride.

"These are things we have to accept as true. Tooth decay is caused by sugar. Decay is not a result of a shortage of fluoride in our diet, it's an excess of sugar."

Dr Scanlon also spoke at length, though concentrated on the health risks that could be associated with the addition of fluoride into drinking water.

"The sophistication and complexity of how a body is means the simplistic one-fits-all approach like the fluoridation of water is such an outrageous concept it is laughable. The Government has dismissed it in light of the expanding evidence that this is a paradigm shift, wake up. Houston, are you there?"

Both men received a standing ovation but was no such reaction to the next submitters, Taranaki District Health Board.....