Waipā District Council is set to be pressed to put a hold on plans to introduce fluoride to water.
The council was ordered to prepare to add fluoride to the Cambridge town supply by outgoing Director General of Health Sir Ashley Bloomfield in July 2022.
Kane Titchener and supporters sit in gallery
Opponents went to a district council meeting to voice their concern and one, the deputy chair of the Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board, has told The News a notice of motion calling for a stall to work will be tabled this month.
Kane Titchener told The News a decision to defer fluoridation for Nelson was “huge”.
“Both the Nelson City Council and the Director General of Health are not as confident as they may have thought they were on the fluoridation issue,” he said.
The fluoride waters were muddied last November by a High Court ruling that Bloomfield’s orders were unlawful because consideration was not given to the Bill of Rights Act in making the directives.
At the time the current Director General of Health Dr Diana Sarfati told council to continue with the fluoride plans. She has granted Nelson an extension while the directives are reviewed.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith – who supports putting fluoride in water – said he was concerned that “as the largest council facing the requirement to fluoridate since the High Court’s decision, we risk getting caught in a legal dispute between the Director-General of Health and opponents of fluoridation”.
Titchener believes another factor behind their decision has been a case in the United States involving the Fluoride Action Network and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
“The case was to determine whether fluoride chemicals added to the water present an unreasonable risk to the population regarding neurotoxicity. The ruling is due in the next few weeks.”
He said the protection agency’s key witness defending fluoridation agreed fluoride was capable of causing neurodevelopment harm at levels as low as two parts per million.
Titchener said 0.2ppm was well below the 0.7-1ppm range the Ministry of Health targets.
He said he had recently “reached out” to Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan and chief executive Garry Dyet to discuss information but “I was not even granted a short meeting to discuss this incredibly important information”.
“In the past decade that I have been speaking to the Waipa District Council about this issue there has not been any community consultation. It just astounds me that Waipā District Council is willing to implement a medical mandate on the community of Cambridge without any consultation or robust discussion.
The notice of motion is expected to request a deferral of fluoridation “in alignment with the Nelson City Council decision”. The motion should be in the March Board Agenda, Titchener said.
