Letters: Fluoride opposition not supported by evidence

The director general of health has ordered TDC to fluoridate drinking water in Dannevirke by June 2024.

Regarding the addition of fluoride to our water supply, the advice from the Ministry of Health states:

“Over 60 years of international and New Zealand research tells us that water fluoridation is safe and effective ... at the levels used in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

“It is absolutely clear that at doses used in New Zealand ... there is no risk from fluoride in the water ... there are no reported cases of disfiguring dental fluorosis associated with the fluoridating of water supplies in New Zealand.

“We conclude that the scientific issues raised by those opposed to fluoridation are not supported by the evidence.”

(The Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser and the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi)

I attended primary school in the 60s. Children’s teeth were so badly decayed we had a fulltime dental nurse and dreaded being summoned to ‘the murder house’, as the dental clinic was referred to.

I had a mouthful of amalgam fillings by the time I went to secondary school. Scaremongering using dubious ‘science’ and statistics has also led to many people not being vaccinated against potentially deadly diseases.

A government tax on cheap sugary soda drinks like Coke and Pepsi would also help to improve the state of our children’s teeth.

Helen Carver

Dannevirke

Editor’s note: All correspondence on this topic is now closed.