We need people to write letters to the editor supporting an end to water fluoridation. See below the published letters for a list of Newspapers and their contact details.
Published Letters to the Editor.
Kane Titchener, Te Awamutu Courier, 9 June 2016
Kane Titchener, Auckland Central Leader, 18 May 2016
Yvonne McDonald, Christchurch Press, 4 May 2016
Jackie Pou, Northland Age, 3 May 2016
Tom O’Connor – President Grey Power Federation, Timaru Herald, 3 May
Ross Forbes, NZ Herald, 18 April
Stan Litras, Christchurch Press, 1 April 2016
LETTERS, THE WHAKATANE BEACON, 16 FEBRUARY 2016
Ethics ignored
Posted February 16th, 2016
In naively believing that a referendum is a sound way of resolving a community health issue, deputy mayor Judy Turner abysmally fails to understand the ethical issues involved with fluoridation.
She essentially believes it is permissible for a simple majority of voters (of whatever proportion) to impose on the rest a treatment that they either do not want or might not need.
Even clear majorities of voters in a referendum should not be able to determine that the rest are forced against their will to take a health-affecting chemical in their drinking water.
If you are sick you don’t ask a stranger to vote on your medication so why should fluoride in community water supplies be any different?
Dr Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate in medicine (2000) and former official adviser to the Swedish Government has said, “Fluoridation is against all modern principles of pharmacology. It’s obsolete. I don’t think anybody, not a single dentist would bring up this question in Sweden anymore.”
That a district health board and several Whakatane district councillors (who had all been apprised of this issue) should ignore these principles is unconscionable.
Ross Forbes Kerikeri
SOURCE URL: http://whakatanebeacon.co.nz/2016/02/ethics-ignored/
Board intimidates council
Posted February 16th, 2016
FOR the sake of one councillor we have to have hydrofluorosilicic acid put back in our water.
What a pity.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board has done it again: it has intimidated our councillors to change their vote, so now we have to have this toxic S7 poison put back in our water.
Is there anyone out there with any logic? When all the figures are looked at, the variation between fluoridated and unfluoridated areas of this country, there is virtually no difference in tooth decay rates.
Fluoride Free NZ keeps revealing new research that proves fluoride is poison and doesn’t work, yet the ministry of health and DHB say it does and there is no evidence of harm.
The DHB produces endorsements from various dental associations in Australia, New Zealand and the US, yet not one skerrick of proof, not one.
It is interesting to note that in 2014 there were 35 general anaesthetics done in fluoridated Whakatane and in non-fluoridated Tauranga there were 48. Tauranga has at least four times the population of Whakatane.
Most countries do not fluoridate drinking water – one or two use salt, however. You can buy the salt unfluoridated, and it is a choice.
Where the water is fluoridated, there is no choice. How many people really believe that people in the lower socio-economic areas drink water anyway?
What is needed in this country is a Child Smile programme, much the same as unfluoridated Scotland. Scotland has way better teeth than New Zealand and they have never fluoridated their water.
1940s science applied in 2016 – congratulations those councillors who voted to keep the S7 poison hydrofluorosilicic acid in our water, especially councillor van Beek.
One day, in the not too distant future, you will be proven wrong.
By the way, to have 18 percent of eligible voters wanting hydrofluorosilicic acid in the water, is not a majority, it is not even democracy.
Jon Burness
Fluoride Free Whakatane
SOURCE URL: http://whakatanebeacon.co.nz/2016/02/board-intimidates-council/
Imelda Hitchcock, Timaru Herald, 30 January 2016
Imelda Hitchcock, Central Leader, 4 December 2015
Kane Titchener, Central Leader, 27 November 2015
Murray Norman, Central Leader, 18 November 2015
Ross Forbes, Northland Age, 6 October 2015
Imelda Hitchcock, Timaru Herald, 15 August 2015
Imelda Hitchcock, Timaru Herald, 28 July 2015
Jackie Pou, Northland Age, 23 June 2015
Jackie Pou, Northland Age, 4 June 2015
Ross Forbes, Northland Age, 28 May 2015
Jackie Pou, Northland Age, 26 May 2015
Ross Forbes, Northland Age, 26 May 2015
Pat McNair, Waikato Times, 20 May 2015
Dr. Bruce Spittle, The Northland Age, 19 May 2015
Jackie Pou, The Northland Age, 14 May 2015
Dr Jane Beck, Hauraki Herald, 8 May 2015
AF re: Fluoride, The Northland Age, 7 May 2015
Ross Forbes, The Northland Age, 30 April 2015
Yvonne McDonald, The Northland Age, 28 April 2015
Jackie Pou, The Northland Age, 28 April 2015
Ross Forbes, The Northland Age, 23 April 2015
Michael Dee, The Northland Age, 21 April 2015
No risk
The Royal Society of New Zealand and the Office of the Prime Minister’s chief science advisor have stated that there are “no negative health risks” from imbibing fluoridated water. Well, I hate to be a bore, but I have a chemical sensitivity to fluoride that was diagnosed by a practicing New Zealand GP.
…
While an allergy is an overreaction to harmless substances, and is curable, a chemical sensitivity is an overreaction to harmful substances and there’s no cure, only avoidance.
I lived in fluoridated Wellington for over 20 years and developed a number of distressing symptoms that various health professionals put down to other causes, like age-related and psycho-sematic. My symptoms included skin rashes, severe itching, unpleasant digestive problems and joint and back pains. They all mysteriously cleared up during a short stay in fluoride-free Europe, and reappeared as soon as I got back.
The doctor told me that fluoride is the most powerful irritant to the human mucus membrane, and that 50 per cent of all fluoride imbibed lodges in the skeleton and organs while the rest is excreted to find its way into the ground water and air – you can check these facts. The last thing he said was, “You shouldn’t even be bathing in the stuff”.
New Zealand got rid of lead in petrol because it is a powerful neuro-toxin that accumulates in the human body and the environment. Fluoride is a little bit different – it’s more toxic.
A New Zealand judge has decreed that fluoride is not a medication – then why is it being proposed as able to solve a health problem in Northland?
Proponents of fluoridation tell us that it’s a natural substance – so is cyanide – and that one part per million is insignificant, while maintaining that it changes the toughest part of the human body, the teeth. One part per million of weed killer in irrigation water kills algae.
Fluoride cannot be filtered conventionally, and is concentrated through boiling and cooking. Local authority personnel who can’t tell you how much fluoride is already in wine, grapes, black and green tea, and coffee – and whether when combined with cooking in fluoridated tap water creates a ‘safe’ dose or not – have no business medicating anybody, let alone infants, the elderly and those on dialysis. People can buy fluoride in toothpaste and other forms if they feel they need it.
Let us never forget that British government scientists once officially assured the British public that eating cows that had eaten other cows was ‘perfectly safe’. Proponents of fluoridation will tell you that evidence like mine is anecdotal. Well, I like a good story, don’t you?
MICHAEL DEE
RD1 Okaihau
Geoff Church, The Northland Age, 21 April 2015
Ross Forbes, The Northland Age, 16 April 2015
Ross Forbes, Bay Chronicle, 16 April 2015
David Schofield, The Northland Age, 16 April 2015
Jackie Pou, Northern News 15 April 2015
Jackie Pou, The Northland Age, 31 March 2015
Trudi Karl, Taupo Times, 27 March 2015
Antia Reid, Taupo Times, 27 March 2015
John G Rawson, Northern Advocate, 26 March 2015
Have your say: Fluoride mirage
Jeffery Addison, Taupo Times, 20 March 2015
Ross Forbes, Northland Age, 19 March 2015
Lynda Brown, Taupo Times, 3 March 2015
Mike Godfrey, Taupo Times, 5 February 2015
Ross Forbes, Taupo Times, 5 February 2015
Mike Woods, Ruapehu Press, 4 February 2015.
Kane Titchener, Taupo Times, 20 January 2015.
Ruapehu Press, 14 January 2015.
Dentist Dr Laurence Fisher, Capital Dental Petone.
Hutt Newspaper, September 2014.
Pat McNair, Hamilton Press, 3 September 2014.
Part 1
Part 2
Pat McNair, Waikato Times, 31 July 2014.
We need people to write letters to the editor supporting an end to water fluoridation. You’ll find a list of the editors to email below.
List of Papers and Contacts to write to:
- The Ashburton Guardian (Canterbury) –
- The Aucklander (Auckland) –
- Bay of Plenty Times (Tauranga) –
- Cambridge Edition (Cambridge) –
- The Daily News (Taranaki) -Daily New Zealand News –
- Devonport Flagstaff (Auckland) –
- The Dominion Post (Wellington) –
- The Eastbourne Herald (Eastbourne) –
- Fiordland Advocate (Fiordland & Southland) –
- Fuseworks Media –
- Gisborne Herald (Gisborne) –
- Gulf News (Oneroa) –
- Hamilton News (Hamilton) –
- Hamilton Press – (Hamilton)
- Hawkes Bay Today (Hakes Bay) –
- Howick & Pakuranga Times (Howick) –
- Local Matters (Warkworth, Wellsford, Matakana) –
- Manawatu Evening Standard (Manawatu) –
- The Marlborough Express –
- Napier Mail (Napier) –
- The Nelson Mail (Nelson) –
- The News (Buller, Westport) –
- The New Zealand Herald (Auckland) –
- The New Zealand Herald Online – online-editor@
nzherald.co.nz - New Zealand Star –
- Newstalk ZB –
- Northern Courier (Porirua) –
- Northland Age (Kaitaia) –
- NZ Newswire –
- Oamaru Mail (Waitaki) –
- Otago Daily Times (Dunedin) –
- Petone Herald (Petone) –
- The Press (Christchurch) –
- Radio Live –
- Radio NZ –
- Rotorua Daily Post –
- South Waikato News –
- The Southland Times (Invercargill) –
- Sunday News (Auckland) –
- Sunday Star Times (Auckland) –
- Taupo Times –
- Te Awamutu Courier – complete online form
- The Timaru Herald (Timaru) –
- The Times Newspapers (Howick, Auckland) –
- Waikato Times (Waikato) –
- Wairarapa Times-Age (Masterton) –
- The Wairoa Star (Wairoa) –
- Wanganui Chronicle (Wanganui) –
Please DO NOT copy anyone else’s letter. It has to be original or it will not be printed.
If you have a letter accepted please send as a jpeg to and it will be uploaded here.