Rotorua Lakes Council Letter to Minister of Health

Rotorua Lakes Council (RLC) have sent a letter to the Minister of Health, Mr Simeon Brown, asking for a withdrawal of the directive sent to them in November 2022 from the Director General of Health ordering them to fluoridate their water supply.

The Council has outlined all the reasons why they disagree with the Directive, pointing out that there is conflicting  evidence pertaining to both the efficacy and the safety of fluoridation.

They have also requested that a public inquiry be held so that this information can be discussed in the public domain. 

It is long past the time when councillors, and New Zealanders in general, can rely unquestionably on the Ministry of Health on this issue. Two weeks ago the Ministry of Health sent two representatives to the RLC to try to convince the councillors that fluoridation was safe and effective. However, their presentations were an embarrassment to the Ministry. They either are completely ignorant of the research, or don’t understand it, or are saying whatever they think they need to so that the fluoridation programme can continue in New Zealand and the Ministry of Health won’t be found to have been wrong.

For example, Dr Shoemack, Medical Officer of Health in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes region, told the councillors that “fluoridation doesn’t treat individuals, it treats the water”– obviously completely untrue. The whole point of fluoridation is to medically treat individuals. Dr Clark misled the council by claiming that the US National Toxicology Program review only looked at studies “well over 1.5ppm, very different to what we have here”. Once again, this was totally untrue.

Fluoride Free New Zealand calls on all local authorities in New Zealand to do the same as RLC. We also challenge anyone who agrees with fluoridation to provide a well referenced rebuttal of any claims made by RLC that are not in agreement with the New Zealand Ministry of Health.

See letter from Rotorua Lakes Council below.