Kane Titchener
Waipā Anti-fluoride campaigner Kane Titchener is hailing a court ruling in the United States.
The San Francisco Federal Court has ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take a second look at a petition to require the EPA to complete a proper risk assessment of fluoride, which it has failed to do.
Mr Titchener, the Kakepuku representative on the Te Awamutu Community Board, says that means the “high quality studies” published in the last few years must be included for review. Anti-fluoride campaigners maintain those studies illustrate fluoride irrevocably and significantly damages children’s brains during early development, both in the womb and for the first 6 – 12 months of life.
“This is especially serious for bottle-fed babies. These are the studies that I presented to the Waipa District Council in August 2019,” he said.
“It is time for the Waipa District Council to take a serious look at the harms of fluoridation and reject any move to allow the water to be fluoridated, in order to protect our children”.
Fluoride Free NZ’s website shows that in Waikato fluoride is used only in Hamilton, Tokoroa and Thames.
That is despite the Waikato District Health Board supporting fluoride.
In the latest court case, the ruling read: “So much has changed since the petition was filed…two significant series of studies – respective cohort studies – which everybody agrees is the best methodology. Everybody agrees that these were rigorous studies and everybody agrees that these studies would be part of the best available scientific evidence.
The EPA appears to have applied a standard of causation, which from my reading of TSCA is not accurate. It’s not a proper allocation. It’s not the proper standard.”
The hearing will resume on August 6.
Fluoride Action Network and others took a petition to the federal court arguing that the EPA had not performed a risk assessment on fluoride as they are required to do under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
