Open Fluoridation Discussion not Supported by Health Officials
Wellington, 17 February 2014 - Not one health official would speak in support of fluoridation at a scientific forum
event in Wellington on Saturday 15 February. Even the most vocal promoters, such as Dr Jonathon Broadbent, Sir Peter
Gluckman (Chief Science Advisor to the PM), Dr Russell Wills (Children’s Commissioner), Dr Robyn Haisman-Welsh of the
Ministry of Health, and Dr Robin Whyman of the National Water Support and Coordination Service, declined to support the
claims they have been making in public.
Only Dr Terry Cuttress, a long-time fluoride researcher and former advisor to the Ministry of Health, now retired, had
agreed to speak, but was unable to attend due to a recent injury.
Organisers went to great lengths to invite proponents with credibility to speak in support of fluoridation. In the end,
those mentioned above were represented by their video-recorded statements as a backup option.
Those statements were consistently discredited by the speakers present – Dr Stan Litras, Wellington dentist and event
organizer, Dr Paul Connett from the USA, and Dr Jane Beck, with a background in occupational health in the UK.
Dr Litras explained that current science shows that there is only a very narrow window of opportunity during which
fluoridated water could benefit teeth at all, and then only if the first stages of decay were present, and sugar was
not.
Dr Beck’s presentation showed that water fluoridation is inconsistent with the criteria set by the 1957 report of the
Commission of Inquiry into Fluoridation.
Both speakers showed that fluoridation does not help those particularly targeted – the poor, Maori, and Pacific Peoples.
Conversely, there are many programmes, such as the Scottish “Childsmile” programme, that do help these groups.
Dr Connett discussed some of the research showing health risks from fluoridation, in particular dozens of human and
animal studies showing damage to the brain.
Both the NZ Medical Association and Fluoride Action Network have called for a national public scientific forum on
fluoridation, both citing the level of misinformation currently in the public arena. This is against a background of
local councils voting to end fluoridation after Tribunal-style hearings, similar in format to Saturday’s forum.
Dr Litras was careful to point out that while the information provided by him at the forum was based on the current
scientific literature, it was not necessarily the position of the NZ Dental Association.
NZFIS is a group of professionals – doctors, dentists, and scientists, who are committed to presenting the scientific
facts about fluoridation, and exposing the lies told about fluoridation.
ENDS