True malaise: Letters, 7 April

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Here you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.

Clearly a toothless debate

So Ken Evans asks if I would guarantee water fluoridation as safe?

Of course I can if water fluoride levels are adjusted to the recommended level. It is all about dose.

After all, pure oxygen is poisonous under pressure. How can I say this?

Simple observations as there are several places in the world that have huge levels of fluoride (over 8.0ppm) in the water. People have lived there for hundreds of years with many generations yet have had healthy and normal lives.

Even our seawater, which we all like to play in, has about 1.3ppm fluoride. So adjusting the water supply to 0.8-1.0ppm shouldn't be a big deal. At these levels, I don't see Aucklanders dropping like flies either with their fluoridated water. But of course, the hysterical comments from our self-appointed "experts", even those who don't live here, seem to get traction.

It's a shame about those painful, rotten teeth especially in the vulnerable as our "experts' " understanding starts to run thin on workable prevention ideas.

Tauranga also has the highest proportion of dentists to population in New Zealand. Are you missing something here?

Dr Graeme Lynam,  Matua

Inequality fears

The Government will probably be applauded for its funding initiative to reduce the youth suicide rate.

Sadly, like other symptomatic treatments applied by successive governments over recent years, this latest remedy is unlikely to have any real or lasting effect.

The true malaise is inequality. And other government policies will inevitably worsen this.

For those who reject this notion, I recommend reading the latest edition of Wilkinson's and Pickett's The Spirit Level. And consider how far we have moved from the egalitarian society we once thought we had.

Chris Lee, Matua

Editorial for all

I'm in no way a health professional, but I have learned how to sieve through Google to get some good, quantified stuff - ever tried that Garth George?

There are 24 confirmed and controlled studies on fluoride introduction to drinking water, check them out, then re-write another editorial.

Mass medication is against the principles of most intelligent people.

Or do you suggest that those who brush their teeth with fluoridated toothpaste alongside drinking fluoridated water are not overdosing?

You may be scraping the pot for another topic next week?

May I suggest a topic for you?

"Add morphine to water supplies to help those in pain (and those without pain?)"

Give it to everyone ... great stuff!

Finally, your "dumbfounded" suggestion that "all the anti-fluoridists in Tauranga would fit into a public toilet" prompts me to agree with the fact that you would be correct ... however, it would have to be a huge toilet of course.

Maybe almost the size of Tauranga? And further, that toilet would have to be so huge as to be able to accommodate the level of "excrement" that you demonstrated in your "dumbfounded" and bizarre editorial.

 (Abridged)

 Michael P Donovan, Tauranga

A positive step

I wish to commend the Rt Hon John Key and the National Party on the recent announcement in regards to youth mental health services and how exciting it is to see a Prime Minister and a Government committed to helping young people in some of their hardest times.

About $62 million being spent to ensure that services are there for people is a great step; this will be especially beneficial for people in Christchurch who have experienced the hell and mental damage that has been created thanks to earthquakes, and for those who experience family violence as well as other life events.

Finally, we are getting resources poured into an area that is so often forgotten and left to chance, having seen friends die due to suicide, as well as many personal challenges myself, this is a step that will make sure people don't fall victim to worse harms such as suicide.

Scott Miller, Christchurch

Jacko Gill fiasco 

In view of Athletics New Zealand's latest "faux pas", which is par for the course, this seems to illustrate far more concern about administrators than the athletes.

Just check out the "High Performance" website if you want proof of that.

Gill, pictured, cannot train and switch about between shotput weights of 6kg and 7.26kg just two weeks before the Olympics.

Athletics NZ simply do not understand athletes' training or their needs, full stop.

In all probability, Gill would do better at the London Olympics than all the "A" qualified athletes, with the exception of Valerie Adams, and from my observations his demeanour and performances at M20 Event at the recent New Zealand Championships were impressive.

In view of this fiasco, I would not be surprised if Jacko Gill was giving consideration to taking up permanent Australian residency with a view to representing Australia at Rio 2016.

Athletics Australia at least knows how to look after their elite young athletes much better than us.

S Paterson, Arataki