Civis has also read much about the fluoridation of civic water supplies and is convinced about the benefits.
Civis was further convinced of the advantages after watching the documentary Predict My Future: What The Dunedin Study Says About Your Future on TVNZ last Monday night. It is also on TVNZ+.
It noted claims that fluoridating water adversely affected children’s mental development and adult IQ were not supported.
Well-intentioned but mistaken activists in Oamaru, Whāngarei, Tauranga and other centres continue to battle to stop the fluoridation of water supplies. Their vehemence, obvious sincerity and questionable evidence are sufficient to convince many councillors to at least resist as long as possible.
The Waitaki District Council was directed to add fluoride in 2022 but resisted until this year. The council has been "temporarily pausing" fluoridation since October, blaming a calibration issue for concentrations above the stipulated band.
The council has just had the direction from the director-general of health reconfirmed.
That order was challenged by NewHealth NZ under the Bill of Rights. A substantive case on this wider challenge is yet to be heard by the High Court.
Waitaki councillors, on what is a matter of public health, agreed earlier this year to advocate to Parliament on the right for councils to choose under principles of localism.
A petition signed by 554 people called on the council to stop all fluoridation plans, acknowledge the right to refuse medical treatment and not serve the "central government bureaucrats".
The standard claims about bone cancer, thyroid disorders and arrested IQ development were made. The World Health Organisation rejects these.
A naturally occurring substance, fluoride has been added to water in New Zealand to help protect children’s teeth since 1954. Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin have long added fluoride.
Legislation for mandatory fluoridation was introduced in 2016 and passed in 2021, with support from all parties in Parliament.
Who knows? Maybe one day reputable evidence could be found of some significant harm. Never say never. In the meantime though, the value, especially in poor communities, is such that fluoridation is most worthwhile. It is a vital and cost-effective public health measure.
The damaging and long-term blight of crippling tooth decay is mitigated.
*****
The Dunedin Study conclusions were published in the respected American Journal of Public Health in 2014. Researchers examined the first five years of the lives of the about 1000 babies born in Dunedin in 1972-73. They were tested between ages 7 to 13 and at 38.
Lead author Jonathan Broadbent said the IQs of study members who grew up in Dunedin suburbs with and without fluoridated water were compared. There were no significant differences.
That was after accounting for the use of fluoride tablets and toothpaste. The study controlled for childhood associations with IQ variation, such as socioeconomic status of parents, birth weight and breastfeeding. Also "controlled" were secondary and tertiary educational achievement, associated with adult IQ.
Interestingly, fluoride exposure also showed no IQ differences even before the controls. Also, and in line with other studies, breastfeeding was associated with higher child IQ, whether children grew up in fluoridated or non-fluoridated places.
Dr Broadbent said in 2014, studies that fluoridation opponents said showed fluoride in water could cause IQ deficits, and which they heavily relied on in city council submissions, were reviewed. They were found to have used poor research methodology and have a high risk of bias.
"Our findings will hopefully help to put another nail in the coffin of the complete canard that fluoridating water is somehow harmful to children’s development. In reality, the total opposite is true."
civis.co.nz
