Almost half of Wairarapa’s population consume fluoridated water and a recent overseas ruling brings the spotlight back on to the controversial issue.
While Masterton District Council fluoridates its town water supply, Carterton and South Wairarapa don’t, and a long-time anti-fluoride campaigner feels the official acknowledgement of risk could help turn the tide of public opinion.
A United States District Judge Edward Chen recently ordered their Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children, the Associated Press reported.
Featherston-based Mary Byrne, national co-ordinator of Fluoride Free New Zealand, said there was “no evidence of benefit, yet indisputable evidence of harm”.
“There is no justification for continuing to harm the brains of growing children.”
Byrne said the US ruling was “huge” and could change people’s view on the potential harm of fluoridation.
“Once people understand that fluoride is a neurotoxin,… then I think most would feel that you don’t add that to the drinking water.”
”I think what we will see in the USA is that they’ll be stopping [fluoridating water],“ she said.
The Ministry and Health and New Zealand Dental Association “strongly supported” the benefits of community water fluoridation.
The Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Bill came into effect in December 2021 which gave the director-general of health the ability to direct councils to add fluoride to drinking water.
Byrne said the director-general of health was “blindly marching ahead with fluoridation directives to force councils to fluoridate against the mounting evidence of harm”.
“The growing public concern and the fact that there are alternative public dental health solutions that actually do work such as the Scottish Childsmile programme.”
The Ministry of Health said on its website that over 60 years of international and New Zealand research “showed water fluoridation is both a safe and effective way to reduce tooth decay”.
“The World Health Organization and other international and national health and scientific experts endorse water fluoridation as the most effective public health measure for preventing dental decay.”
Regarding safety concerns, the ministry said from a medical and public health perspective, water fluoridation at the levels used in New Zealand “posed no significant health risks and is effective at reducing the prevalence and severity of tooth decay in communities where it is used”.
Masterton District Council has been fluoridating its water for decades but does not have a policy. It fluoridates its water with hydrofluorosilicic acid (22%) at 0.8 parts per million.
The council installed a tap on Manuka St in 2016 that provided unfluoridated water fed from the Opaki Community Water Supply.
Carterton District Council does not fluoridate its water. Its latest Long Term Plan said that the current legislation does not take away the ability for council to use its discretion to add fluoride to drinking water.
“The director-general of health wrote to council in September 2023 stating that no further action was required from council towards community water fluoridation.”
South Wairarapa District Council has also not been asked to fluoridate water nor placed under any active consideration but is choosing to consider the idea anyway.
“We have included fluoridation in our unconstrained 30-year Asset Management Plan, but it is not in the next 10-year plan,” a spokesperson said.
The Cochrane review published recently in the United Kingdom found that the dental health benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water may be smaller now than before fluoride toothpaste was widely available.
The team of researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Dundee and Aberdeen reviewed the evidence from 157 studies which compared communities that had fluoride added to their water supplies with communities that had no additional fluoride in their water. They found that the benefit of fluoridation had declined since the 1970s, when fluoride toothpaste became more widely available.
Original article online at: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350438479/us-fluoridation-ruling-brings-spotlight-local-policies