Mark Freeman
A petition calling for an end to water fluoridation in New Zealand was accepted at parliament on Tuesday by MPs from New Zealand First.
More than 20,000 people signed Fluoride Free New Zealand’s petition, whose aim is to make decision makers aware of the depth of feeling in the country against fluoridation.
On the same day New Zealand First announced a member’s bill to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Water) Amendment Act 2021, which gave authority to the Director-General of Health to mandate fluoridation of local water supplies. The bill would also mandate local bodies to hold referenda on water fluoridation.
Fluoride Free spokeswoman Mary Byrne is pleased that New Zealand First is doing something about fluoridation. She welcomes the proposed repeal of the Health Amendment Act but has mixed feelings about local referenda on the issue. “Ideally fluoridation should not be decided by referendum.” The choice of whether or not to ingest fluoride is “a basic human right”, she says.
She’s concerned that mainstream media bias would sway public opinion in favour of fluoridation. “How will we have a fair referendum if we can’t have fair access to media?”
Ms Byrne believes that New Zealand First has been encouraged to speak out on fluoridation now because of the petition and because of the New Zealand speaking tour of the American anti-fluoridation campaigner Michael Connett.
Over a thousand people turned up to listen to Mr Connett, who spoke to packed halls and standing ovations in eight New Zealand centres.
He was the lead attorney in a legal case in which a US federal court in September ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency to begin strengthening fluoride regulations. The judge found that the levels of fluoridation of water in the United States presented an unreasonable risk of developmental damage and lowering of children’s IQs.
