A Taranaki council has won a landmark legal fight to add fluoride to the water supply in two towns, and the Supreme Court decision has been praised by New Zealand’s dentists. On Wednesday the court ruled against anti-fluoride campaigners following a five-and-a-half-year, $385,000 legal battle over the water supply in Patea and Waverley. South Taranaki District Council decided to add fluoride in […]
News Archive
Welcome to the Fluoride Action Network News Archive. The FAN News Archive serves as an historical repository for fluoride news stories, positive or negative. Since FAN catalogs all news stories on fluoride, our news section remains a reliable database of all published fluoride news.
Our news database is categorized by country, state/province, and industry. This collection of articles is constantly being updated with the most recent global news on fluoride-related issues and events.
Supreme Court rules South Taranaki fluoridation allowed
The Supreme Court has ruled that a council can add fluoride to the water supply in South Taranaki, despite legislation stating people have the right to refuse medical treatment. The court made a majority decision that adding fluoride to drinking water did fall under section 11 of the NZ Bill of Rights Act, which gives […]
Fluoride to return to Hastings water supply after a two year absence
Fluoride is due to make a return to Hastings drinking water from August, following a two year absence due to the Havelock North gastro outbreak. Hawke’s Bay DHB was keen to see fluoride return to the supply and in a paper going before the board today staff said “community fluoridation remains an ongoing and serious […]
Otago: Council urged to add fluoride to entire drinking supply
Fluoride should be added to all council-run drinking water supplies in Central Otago for the good health of residents, district councillors were told this week. Emeritus Prof Peter Herbison, who worked in the University of Otago Health Science Division before retiring to Bannockburn, urged the Central Otago District Council to add fluoride. Prof Herbison spoke […]
Otago University study highlights ‘giant’ issue of poor oral health for ageing Kiwis
Decaying teeth and poor oral hygiene among older people, especially those in residential care, is a major public health problem that’s only going to worsen, a leading researcher says. Professor Murray Thomson, head of University of Otago’s oral sciences and lead author of a new study on the topic, labelled the issue a “geriatric giant”. “Neither […]
Anti-1080 activists claim pesticide supporters ‘terrorists’
Note from FAN: Molecular structure of highly toxic Sodium fluoroacetate (known as 1080) Police have given two men a warning after delivering letters to a number organisations calling supporters of planned poison drops terrorists. The letters came ahead of planned drops of the pesticide on the South Island’s West Coast. The West Coast has been a hot […]
Ballance Agri-Nutrients faces big fine for toxic gas cloud
Ballance Agri-Nutrients is facing a large fine after a toxic gas cloud from its fertiliser manufacturing plant wafted over a group of workers and two truck drivers. Workers at the Ballance site described seeing a “huge gas cloud” , 20 to 30m wide, heading towards Mauao. Others described it as “a plume of black smoke […]
‘Tooth decay is a socio-economic disease’
A child’s mouth showing rotten and decaying teeth. Photo: 123RF A new report from the Child Poverty Action Group paints a grim picture of oral health, with some parents not knowing how to properly brush their children’s teeth, or that they can access free dental care. While the prevalence of tooth decay was declining in […]
Mosgiel lobby group fighting fluoride
A Mosgiel group has formed to fight to get fluoride out of the Dunedin water supply until the chemical is proved safe. Group co-ordinator Dennis Enright, of Mosgiel, said nearly 50 people attended a public meeting about fluoride in the Downes Room last week. From the meeting, a working group was formed to lobby the […]
Dunedin: Council gets ticking off over bill
Margaret van Zyl is still waiting for her money. The Mosgiel pensioner turned up at the Dunedin City Council’s infrastructure and networks committee meeting yesterday to voice her displeasure during the public forum. She was upset by the council’s continuing practice of adding fluoride to drinking water, in line with Ministry of Health guidelines. And […]