Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Hamilton, NZ - Going backwards on prior fluoride voting - and other fluoride news


Key supports fluoridation

Updated at 1:47 pm on 15 June 2013
The Prime Minister supports adding fluoride to water but says the Government won't force councils to fluoridate
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/137690/key-supports-fluoridation

Hamilton must vote again on fluoride

Last updated 11:13 16/06/2013
 
"The Hamilton City Council has ample evidence to suggest it supported a vocal minority when it voted by seven votes to one to remove fluoride from the city's water supply.

"To begin with, it has overturned the result of the 2006 referendum when 38 per cent of eligible Hamilton voters - more than typically vote in council elections - overwhelmingly supported continued fluoridation. That referendum was supposed to be binding.

"If the council was somehow beguiled or misled into thinking the public has changed its mind since 2006, its folly was exposed in a recent poll conducted by this newspaper. Again, a persuasive two-to-one of Hamilton residents say they want their drinking water fluoridated.

"Mayor Julie Hardaker and the six city councillors who over-rode that opinion should be anxious to get back on side with the majority.

"To the contrary, Ms Hardaker expresses satisfaction with the tribunal process that was introduced to guide the council.

"It gave the community its opportunity to comment, she says, and she is comfortable with how she voted. She is untroubled by claims that fluoride could cost the council their jobs at local body elections in October.

"She may be right in believing her job is secure, but Waikato District Health Board member and city councillor Ewan Wilson is better tuned into public sentiment when he pushes for a fresh referendum on fluoridation and expresses the hope this leads to the council overturning its decision. He maintains the tribunal process and the cue it gave to councillors were hijacked by the anti-fluoride lobby and ignores what the majority of Hamiltonians wanted. He refers to the "considerable good science" that shows fluoridation is a good base for public health. The prime minister's chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, agrees.

"Pat McNair, co-ordinator of Fluoride Free Hamilton, has obvious reasons for insisting a referendum is unnecessary and for defending the integrity of the tribunal process, but she shows a disdain for democracy when she dismisses a referendum as "just people's opinion in the street".

"The referendum idea has thrown the council a lifeline, inviting it to pull itself out of a hole into which it has dug itself.

"The council could emerge much faster and with more dignity if it simply said "oops" and reversed its earlier decision."

Getting a grip on the science behind claims about fluoridation Ken Perrott Jun 17

http://sciblogs.co.nz/open-parachute/2013/06/17/getting-a-grip-on-the-science-behind-claims-about-fluoridation/

"Here’s an interesting graphic on fluoridation and the scientific evidence for it..."

Hamilton City Council reverses (2006's) referendum (with) fluoridation decision

Posted on
http://openparachute.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/hamilton-city-council-reverses-referendum-fluoridation-decision/

SUBMISSIONS ANALYSIS REPORT - FLUORIDATION REVIEW

Summary of Submissions (Hamilton, NZ - pdf)
http://www.hamilton.co.nz/our-council/consultation-and-public-notices/haveyoursay/Documents/Submissions%20Analysis%20Report%20-%20Fluoridation%20Hearings%2028%20May.PDF

PM backs fluoride as calls for referendum grow

Last updated 17:02 14/06/2013 http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/8797244/Call-for-people-power-to-push-fluoride-referendum

"Prime Minster John Key has described anti-fluoride arguments as "overstated".
Speaking to the media at the National Fieldays today, Key said he supported fluoridation of water supplies, but it was a matter for local councils to decide..."


Foon Rhee: The fluoride wars come to Davis – and look who's leading the wayBy Foon Rhee, Associate editorfrhee@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
By Foon Rhee, Associate editor
Last modified: 2013-06-18T16:28:54Z
Published: Sunday, Jun. 16, 2013
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/16/5498264/the-fluoride-wars-come-to-davis.html#storylink=cpy

"...So to those following the fluoride wars, it's no shocker that a front has opened in Davis. It fits the profile. Many anti-fluoride crusaders now tend to be affluent baby boomers, mostly white and well-educated, who are concerned about what goes into their bodies and who are politically savvy...

"It's an issue because Davis voters in March approved a massive project to draw water from the Sacramento River and run it through a new $110 million treatment plant. Starting in 2016, Davis is to get 12 million gallons a day of treated water and its partner, Woodland, another 18 million gallons daily. Because there will be separate pipelines to the two cities, each gets to decide for itself whether to add fluoride...

"...Foes appeared last July before the Sacramento City Council to oppose a $550,000 grant to pay for fluoridation equipment upgrades..."

(Jerusalem Health Minister) Yael German willing to consider fortification of foods
06/16/2013
http://www.jpost.com/Health-and-Science/Health-minister-reconsiders-policy-on-drinking-water-316743

"Health minister tells 'Post' she has a more positive view of adding nutrients to food than to tap water...

"Health Minister Yael German – while unwilling to change her recent decision to cancel the nationwide requirement of municipalities and towns to fluoridate their drinking water since only a small percentage of the population needs it – is willing to consider fortification of foods to improve public health...

"German said that decades of tap water fluoridation is “wasteful because only about 2 percent of fresh water is actually drunk by residents.”

"She maintained that there are better ways of delivering fluoride – which has been proven to protect and preserve the dental health of children – than through the water supply, and stated that “thyroid disease” and other diseases could result from exposing the whole population to fluoride.

"German’s cancellation of mandatory fluoridation aroused much opposition by public health experts both outside and within her ministry.

“It may be that it was a mistake to do it for 30 years,” she said."

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