[Health&Healing] New Zealand Report on US Fluoridation Issued

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Misty L. Trepke

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New Zealand Report on US Fluoridation Issued

The New Zealand Herald

 

<AHREF= " http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?

storyID=3502563 & thesection=news & thesubsection=dialogue " >http://www.nz

herald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3502563 & thesection=news &

thesubsection=dialogue</A>

 

Barbara Sumner Burstyn: Maybe it has something to do with what is in

the water

 

19.05.2003

 

In a strange act of synchronicity, on the day New Zealand was

announcing that our children have some of the worst teeth in the

Western world the United States Environmental Protection Agency

hosted a science forum on fluoridation. It was intended to confirm

the effectiveness of fluoridation. But on the day, despite an

overflowing house and representatives from all the major

organisations in the fluoride debate, the agency's science advisory

board was unable to find anyone - scientist or otherwise - willing

to defend the practice of water fluoridation in an open public

debate.

 

After years of rubber-stamping scientific results from industry-

funded studies, the agency may now be taking a different position.

At the forum its spokesperson said that new evidence on fluoride's

toxicity needed to be examined.

 

While the US is slowly waking up to not only the potential dangers

of fluoride but also its lack of effectiveness in reducing cavities,

New Zealand is sticking to its guns. In a letter to anti-fluoride

campaigner Silvia Cole in February, the Minister of Health, Annette

King, said that fluoridation of water supplies remained the most

effective and socially equitable means of achieving community-wide

exposure to the caries-preventive effects of fluoride.

 

However, when you realise that 58 per cent of our teenagers and 47

per cent of 5-year-olds have serious dental decay, this statement

sounds more like a belief system than a conclusion based on science.

Clearly something has gone wrong.

 

According to the Dental Association executive director, David Crum,

it's the fault of parents. He says that they're failing nearly an

entire generation of children. Of course he's right. It is a

parent's responsibility to ensure that children learn the basics

like teeth brushing. But you don't go from one of the best dental

health standards in the world to the present state on the backs

of slack parents. Especially when for years the Ministry of Health

has been claiming victory over cavities through the endorsement and

administration of fluoride.

 

Rather, the reason for our soaring cavity rates might just be the

dismantling of the school dental therapy system. In its heyday the

service provided comprehensive and regular care to all children

regardless of their economic situation. And the reason for its

demise? Callum Durwood, the dental surgeon who co-chairs the School

and Community Dental Services Forum, was quoted as saying that

dental therapist numbers have been reduced because, with fluoride,

the need wasn't there.

 

Under this misguided notion we've lost hundreds of dental therapists

and, even though dental care is still free to children under 18,

just finding a dentist willing to work for the $24 flat fee the

Government pays them is difficult.

 

In some areas kids would be lucky if they saw a dentist's chair

every two years.

 

But what about the safety of fluoride? The Minister of Health's

February letter set out the Government's belief that fluoride is a

harmless substance with minimal side-effects. Annette King took the

opportunity to lambaste Dr Paul Connett, a professor of chemistry at

St Lawrence University in New York. Dr Connett is known

internationally for his research and collation of information on

the effects of fluoride, but the minister declared this research to

be not supported by the evidence available in reputable scientific

literature.

 

However, a perusal of just some of his sources, citations that

appear to be peer-reviewed, scientifically published but perhaps not

industry-funded, shows a different picture. He presents evidence on

everything from the relationship between fluoridated water and

increased bone (particularly hip) fractures (19 separate studies for

that one) to the true extent of fluorosis in children and the

possible association between fluoride and such things as reduced

fertility, the increased uptake of aluminium into the brain and

increased uptake of lead into children's blood.

 

The minister also does us a disservice when she says in her letter

that more than 40 countries fluoridate their waters. What she fails

to say is that only seven countries artificially fluoridate most of

their drinking water. The rest have either stopped recently or

fluoridate only one city.

 

Perhaps if the ministry had consented to send a representative to

the 25th conference of the International Society of Fluoride

Research in January, it might have gained more up-to-date

information. The Dunedin conference hosted numerous international

fluoride experts. It's difficult to imagine any reason for the

ministry's failure to take advantage of the latest research on

their doorstep, particularly given that a new fluoride promotion

campaign is about to start.

 

The ministry is, of course, likely to come back with a vigorous

defence of its endorsement of fluoride. But perhaps when you're

reading their fulsome PR it may be pertinent to consider that

fluoride seems to have failed to prevent caries. And that its

promise of an all-inclusive dental Band-aid has gone hand in hand

with the virtual dismantling of the child dental health system.

 

Combine these with the Environmental Protection Agency's new

concerns about toxicity and the simple fact that mass medication via

our water violates the cornerstone of medical ethics - the right of

the patient to informed consent - and you begin to wonder if

fluoridation will be this country's next failed experiment.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/letters/

 

 

New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation

<A

HREF= " http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof " >http://www.orgsites.com/ny/n

yscof</A>

<A HREF= " http://tinyurl.com/ad9k " >http://tinyurl.com/ad9k</A>

 

Fluoride Action Network

<A

HREF= " http://www.fluoridealert.org/ " >http://www.fluoridealert.org</A>