A leading opponent of drinking water fluoridation is coming to Wichita for a series of speeches leading up to the Nov. 6 election, when voters will decide on the issue.

Dr. Paul Connett, Ph.D. is a toxicologist and chemist. He wrote a book called The Case Against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep it There.

In the book, Connett, the director of the Fluoride Action Network, makes a case fluoride can be linked to harm to the brain, bones and endocrine system.

Connett will be the guest of the group Wichitans Opposed to Fluoridation. Spokesman Don Landis said the argument that water fluoridation reduces tooth decay is weak. He quoted a 40-year study by the World Health Organization that he says shows a drop in tooth decay in all industrialized countries, regardless of whether fluoride is added to drinking water.

“Dental decay goes down regardless,” Landis said. “That’s because in improvements in nutrition, that’s improvement in tools that you use to clean your teeth, better toothbrushes, better products.”

Connett will give presentations from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31.