Important Update 31st May 2022
Fluoridation equipment at the Upper Hutt Twin Lakes broke down last May (2021). Since then all of Upper Hutt, Stokes Valley and the suburbs from Pukerua Bay through to Kaori have not been fluoridated. Another fluoridation injector at Petone’s Gear Island site has also broken down which means the level of fluoride in other Wellington suburbs is probably lower than usual. The Wellington Regional Council has agreed to spend a whopping $6,000,000 on replacing the injectors. First Stage of Upgraded Fluoride Facilities Secures Funding
Note: Lower Hutt and Wainuiomata are still fluoridated. Petone and Korokoro still not fluoridated.
Wellington Water provide updates on the work going on to (unfortunately) restore fluoridation with options to fix existing stations or build completely new ones.
Wellington Fluoridation Information
What parts of Wellington are fluoridated?
All of Wellington region except Petone and Korokoro are fluoridated normally. Paekakariki is also not fluoridated but that comes under the Kapiti District Council.
How the Wellington supplies connect
The Te Marua supply services Upper Hutt and Stokes Valley and then goes through to Porirua, Tawa, Johnsonville and the Wellington suburbs as far south as Karori.
Waterloo supply services all of Lower Hutt except Wainuiomata and Stokes Valley. The Waterloo pumping station has two outlets: The first outlet has Fluoride is added to it.
The second one goes to the Rahui reservoir which then feeds Korokoro and Petone until it gets to Gear Island at the east end of Jackson Street where it then joins with Wainuiomata water before going into Wellington. When it converges with the Wainui water, fluoride is added so the “right” level is achieved before getting into Wellington the areas of Wellington that are not supplied by Te Marua.
Map of Wellington – fluoridated versus non-fluoridated
Wellington Regional Water & Sewer Map 2015
What fluoride chemicals are used to fluoridate Wellington’s water supply?
Wellington uses Hydrofluorosilicic acid at Te Marua and Wainuiomata Water Treatment stations and sodium Silicofluoride at Waterloo. It is imported from Belguim campany Prayon via Auckland company Prosser. Waterloo provides water for most of Lower Hutt including Korokoro and Petone but fluoride is only added to the channels going to the rest of Lower Hutt so Korokoro and Petone water is non-fluoridated.
What level is Wellington fluoridated at?
The Councils aim to fluoridate at the MoH recommended level of between 0.7ppm and 1ppm with a target of 0.85ppm. Councils are required to test the fluoride levels every week and keep at log of this. See Wellington and Hutt Fluoride levels 2013 – 2019 for the actual levels in the water.
How much per annum is spent on Fluoride chemicals to fluoridate?
Costs around $200,000 per year.
When did fluoridation begin in Wellington and has there been any public consultation since beginning?
Fluoridation started in mid 1965 and there has never been any public consultation apart from extensive survey in Petone-Korokoro in 1999 that found most residents did not want fluoridation
News
Stuff 14th April 2022 “Not simple” to get Wellington’s deteriorating machinery back to work.
August 2013 Some information on candidates from the Wellington City Election Watch site
Wairarapa Times-Age 20th June 2013 Caffell:Let the public speak on fluoride
Wairarapa Times-Age 19th June 2013 Get both sides of the fluoride debate
Waiararapa Times-Age 18th June 2013 Masterton council slammed over fluoride
The Dominion Post 8th June 2013 Fluoride nutters bite off too much
The Wellingtonian 6th June 2013 Fluoridation a Hot Issue
2014 Update:
Wellington Regional Council Draft Annual Plan 2012
6th July 2012 Councillors were again much more responsive than the city councillors. We are hopeful this council will conduct a review of fluoridation within the next 12 months. The last time a review was done was 1993. People are invited to continue to write to the councillors to tell them it is high time this happened. An official response is yet to be received in regards to this year’s presentation.
Wellington City Council Draft Long Term Plan 2012
6th July 2012 Councillors were much more open to this issue than in past years. However, some councillors were not present and Councillors Ahipene-Mercer and Foster walked out just as presentations were about to start. Mayor Celia Wade-Brown asked if our group was also opposed to chlorination. It is concerning that the Mayor does not appear to have grasped the most basic aspect that the group is against medicating people through the water supply.
However we do feel that progress has been made and we will get there in the end even though the official response was disappointing. “We received a number of submissions requesting that the Council stop fluoride treatment of the water supply in Wellington. During the consultation process, the Council considered the views of a number of people and organisations on the issue, including Regional Public Health. The views expressed in submissions varied greatly. Having carefully questioned submitters and considered the different views, the Council has decided to continue fluoride treatment of the city’s water supply. ” WCC..
WCC Draft Annual Plan 2011
The following people from the National Fluoride Information Service (a.k.a. Disinformation Service) attended both the Lower Hutt and Wellington City Council submission hearings:
Dr Stephen Palmer – Medical Officer of Health, Regional Public Health
Dr Robin Whyman – dentist, Regional Public Health (ex Oral Health Advisor for MoH)
Dr Neil Stephen – head of school dental clinics for New Zealand
Peter Gush – Service Manager of the Disinformation Service
There was also another woman at Lower Hutt from the DHB who sat with the team presenting. At Lower Hutt there were also another 7 or 8 people who had come along to support the pro-F team whom Stephen Palmer introduced as representatives from the NZ Dental Association.
Stephen Palmer started off both presentations by putting up Paul Connett’s power point and saying that he had reviewed it. After showing Paul’s slide that says fluoride is linked to a whole list of adverse health affects, Palmer’s next slide says that he has reviewed all the information he can safely say that Paul Connett’s data is … wait for it… complex! He then shows a slide with a whole lot of circles, and lines joining the circles, to give a visual on how complex it is. He then goes on to introduce all his esteemed colleagues and to let the councillors ask them questions. The whole strategy is to make the councillors feel that the subject is way too complicated for the mere lay councillor and that they should just put all their faith in these doctors and dentists as they are the only ones that are intelligent enough to understand such huge and complex information.
This seemed to work quite well in Wellington where only Cr Bryan Pepperall seemed to be prepared to challenge them. Maybe there are some other councillors who are not completely taken in by the “believe us we are the experts”, but I’m not aware of who they are.
In answering questions, Robin Whyman stated “the benefit from fluoride is topical” but went on to explain that we still need to swallow it because some washes past our teeth as we are swallowing the water and that because fluoride gets into our bloodstream that some then comes out of our saliva glands to provide a constant stream of fluoride to the teeth. This is where fluoridation meets Monty Python and if it wasn’t true it would make a great comedy sketch.
Whyman also explained that we shouldn’t compare ourselves with overseas data and the fact that dental health has improved in all the non-fluoridated countries of Europe is nothing to go by. We should instead focus on the Wellington Canterbury study that shows that children in Wellington (Wellington has the best dental health in the country) have, on average, one less decayed, missing or filled permanent tooth SURFACE (out of over 100 tooth surfaces) than children in unfluoridated Canterbury. This is so incredible it never fails to amaze me that we have so many councillors who will swallow this. What on earth is the matter with them?
The Hutt city councillors were better though, with a lot more intelligent questions. Palmer then offered that they could give the Council a two hour presentation that they gave to Regional Council in April. Mark Atkin has obtained a copy of Palmer’s presentation and is in the process of obtaining Whyman’s. Email if you would like a copy.
1st June 2011
Greater Wellington Regional Council launched a new online forum for people to have their say about what Council does. People are encouraged to use the forum to let Council know they object to fluoridation.
28th March 2011
Public meting and presentation by world leading fluoridation expert, U.S. Prof Emeritus Paul Connett: 7.30pm – 9pm, at Wesley Church Hall, Taranaki Street.
Responses from Wellington Candidates in the 2010 Local Body Elections.
In 2010 Wellington people got active and put submissions into both the Regional and the city council. Over 20 people attended the hearings at both councils. This year we plan to do it again!
Celia Wade Brown is the new Wellington mayor (Oct 2010). Her and another councillor, Iona Pannett are members of the Green party. In 2009, Celia Wade Brown organised a workshop at Wellington City Council so that FANNZ members could show the Professional Perspectives DVD. However, only her and Cr Pannett turned up. After contacting some of the other councillors it was found that they had told Celia Wade Brown that they could not make that time.
Then in 2010, about 20 Wellington citizens attended the submission hearings for the Draft Annual Plan. Because each of these people would have been allowed 5 minutes to speak, the Council agreed to show The Professional Perspectives instead. Only 5 councillors were present at the meeting: Andy Foster, Ian McKinnon, Ray Ahipene-Mercer, Iona Pannett and Celia Wade-Brown. Only Crs Pannett and Wade-Brown bothered to watch the video with the others seeming to use the time to catch up on reading.
Wellington Regional Council – In April 2010 22 Wellingtonians attended submission hearings where The Professional Perspectives video was shown as well as the Council allowing 5 speakers. All council members attended, watched the video and asked thoughtful questions. They then requested the MOH provide feedback (aka rebuttal) of what they were shown. FANNZ was not allowed to be included in further correspondence.