Water
Anti-fluoride campaigner Kane Titchener, buoyed by a court ruling in the United States, says he will ask Waipā District Council to liaise with 13 other councils to push back against adding the chemical to water supplies.
Kane Titchener
He has analysed an 80-page September 24 ruling from the United States District Court, Northern District of California, which he described as ‘huge news”.
Titchener is the deputy chair of the Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board which has previously called on the council to make a stand against an order issued in 2022 by outgoing director general of health Ashley Bloomfield to add fluoride to the Cambridge supply.
To date the council had declined to do so.
Titchener said he plans to raise a notice of motion at the next community board meeting “so that the council formally receives the US court ruling”.
“My notice of motion will ask Waipā District Council to raise the US Federal Court Ruling findings with the Director General of Health, request that Waipā District Council liaise with the 13 other directed Councils to push back against being directed to put a known neurotoxin into the water supply and thirdly, advise the Cambridge Community that there is strong evidence that the fluoride which they are being directed to put into the water supply is neurotoxic particularly for the foetus and infant’ he said.
The ruling says scientific evidence has increasingly identified a link between fluoride exposure and adverse cognitive effect in children. Where there is considerable debate is what constitutes a hazardous level of fluoride in water, but regardless, opponent don’t want it added at all.
The Health Ministry counters that fluoride is a “safe, effective and affordable way to prevent tooth decay for everyone”. It says it is important to distinguish between effects of apparent fluoride toxicity at very high intakes and effects that may occur at much lower intakes, adding “some studies have failed to do to, giving rise to potentially misleading statements and confusion”.
Image by José Manuel Suárez via CC
