News Archive

A Rotorua public health official backs fluoridating local water supplies to cut child tooth decay rates, despite longstanding opposition to the move. The Government is being urged to give district health boards the final say on putting fluoride in town water supplies. A recent inquiry into child health by the parliamentary health committee recommended the […]

The Health Minister is rejecting pressure for the Government to make decisions on water fluoridation. Hamilton City Council yesterday deferred a vote on whether or not to reintroduce fluoride, prompting mayor Julie Hardaker to call on the Government to step in. Minister Tony Ryall says the Government has no plans to take decision making out […]

Hamilton City Council has deferred a decision on whether or not to re-fluoridate the city’s water supply. Seven councillors voted to remove fluoride from the water in June, however, a subsequent referendum in October saw 70% of voters asking for the chemical to be put back. Councillors today voted seven to five to delay the decision […]

Hamilton City Council could spend up to $300,000 providing a public tap to appease residents unwilling to drink fluoridated water. The council is today widely expected to vote to resume fluoridation, just four months after seven councillors, two now gone, voted to pull it from the water. But the waters are looking increasingly muddied, and […]

Fluoride is not a medical treatment because it can be refused, a bioethical expert has informed the High Court in New Plymouth. Professor of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Otago Professor John McMillan’s ethical analysis of fluoridation of public water supplies was yesterday tabled in support of South Taranaki District Council’s decision in December […]

Deciding whether to add fluoride to town water supplies is a vexed issue for local decision makers, Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby says. “You can get 10 expert reports that say fluoride is safe and is good for people and you can get another 10 expert reports that say it’s unsafe and we shouldn’t use it.” […]

New Zealand local councils have a clear legal power to fluoridate public water supplies, a right devolved to them by Parliament when it revised local government law in 2002, a court has been told. That is the gist of arguments put to the High Court in New Plymouth today by South Taranaki District Council in […]

A vote returning fluoride to Hamilton’s water risks becoming a lawyers’ feast, with two city councillors rejecting advice to stand down, while others plot to stop it in its tracks. The city council will on Thursday consider a referendum overwhelmingly supporting a return to fluoridation, just months after eight elected members voted 7-1 to end […]

Lithium, a powerful mental health treatment, could be added to water supplies by New Zealand’s local councils under the same vague rules that allow them to add fluoride. That was one of the arguments anti-fluoridation group New Health NZ put to a test court case being heard in New Plymouth today to decide if South […]

On Thursday the Hamilton City Council will decide whether or not to put fluoride back into the city’s water supply. A report with options will be discussed at the full Council meeting on 28 November. The options have been created based on things such as background, previous decisions, new information and legal issues. The options […]