Media Release
4th October 2013
Chiropractic Care of Children Safe in New Zealand
The New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association (NZCA) is concerned that recent media coverage has inaccurately reported
allegations about chiropractic care of children in Australia and unnecessarily alarmed some New Zealand patients.
The NZCA wishes reassure New Zealanders that chiropractic care is one of the safest forms of primary health care and to
reiterate the points made by its sister organisation, the Chiropractic Association of Australia (CAA) last week.
The CAA has demanded the Australian Sunday Age and the Australian Sun-Herald retract and correct an erroneous claim made
in those newspapers on 29th September that an investigation by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
found that ‘a Melbourne infant’s neck was broken during a chiropractic adjustment.’
In fact no such finding was made.
In fact no finding of inappropriate treatment by a chiropractor was made.
In fact no finding was made that any treatment performed by the chiropractor caused a fracture as alleged.
The NZCA notes that the National President of the CAA, Dr Laurie Tassell has gone on record as saying: ‘It remains the
case that not a single serious adverse event has been recorded in the medical literature (world-wide) involving a
qualified chiropractor treating a child since 1992.
NZCA President, Dr Corrian Poelsma adds that: ‘New Zealand chiropractors are some of the best trained in the world.
Chiropractic training in this country involves five years tertiary study and qualified chiropractors are taught the
appropriate primary care for infants and children.
‘Thousands of younger patients are seen by chiropractors in New Zealand each year with any adverse events being
extremely rare. Chiropractic care of babies involves very safe, gentle adjustments; the light techniques used would
usually be similar in pressure to that given to test a ripe tomato.’
For further information on the New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association visit www.chiropractic.org.nz.
ENDS