American lawyer Michael Connett has been booked to speak in Cambridge early next month.
Michael Connett
Connett has been a prominent figure in a legal crusade against fluoride in drinking water in the US, and he will add firepower to Fluoride Free NZ campaigner Kane Titchener’s push to stop Waipā District Council bowing to the Ministry of Health’s requirements by adding fluoride to Cambridge’s supply.
Proponents of fluoride in Cambridge will doubtless take umbrage at Titchener’s involvement as his political interests are not in the town. He is deputy chair of the Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board.
The Ministry of Health recommends adding fluoride to drinking water and the requirement to do so in Cambridge was made in July 2022 by outgoing Director-General of Health Sir Ashley Bloomfield. It has not been added to supplies in Waipā before.
Connett has argued, as does Titchener, that fluoride presents an unreasonable risk of neurological harm.
Ironically, news of his visit comes on the heels of the release of a University of Queensland study which found no link between exposure to water fluoridation as a young child and negative cognitive development.
A study of 357 people, now aged 16 to 26 years old, found those who consistently drank fluoridated water had an IQ score 1.07 points higher on average than those who did not.
“There have been claims water fluoridation can negatively affect children’s neurodevelopment, but these results provide consistent evidence this is not the case,” Professor Loc Do from UQ’s School of Dentistry said.
Kane Titchener
Titchener responded that a subsequent paper released this month said that 52 of 59 studies linked higher fluoride levels with lower IQ and the average loss was 7 points.
He said Connett, who is touring New Zealand this month and next, would explain all the science and what it means.
Titchener has called on the Waipā District Council to put a hold on plan to introduce fluoride.
The council is one of 14 instructed to add fluoride to water supplies and expects it will take about nine months. The work will involve installing plant.
Current Director-General of Health Diana Sarfati, in a letter to the council last month confirming the order said, “according to the available scientific evidence, water fluoridation within the optimal rage provides protections against dental caries…” and “community water fluoridation is an effective public health measure”.
