Fluoridation is Unethical

Unlike other chemicals added to drinking water, fluoride is not used to treat the water. It is used to treat the person drinking the water, a form of mass medication.
This is a violation of medical ethics as the medicine is given without consent, delivered by people without medical qualifications, without oversight and without control of the dose.

We need to keep fluoride in the dental chair where patients can be informed.

Once fluoridation is added to the public water supply it effectively robs people of choice.
Even if a person gets a filter that takes fluoride out of their drinking water, or is able to source fluoridation-free water from a spring or aquifer, fluoride is still present in the water used for bathing and showering. The vast majority of New Zealanders cannot afford a full house filter of a cost of around $4000 – $5000 with ongoing cost of replacing filters.

And even for those people who can afford a full house filter, they still cannot avoid fluoridated water unless they never consume a beverage that was made with fluoridated water,they never consumea meal such as soup or curry that uses a lot of water and they never buy a meal that had used fluoridated water in its preparation. Nor would they avoid it if they used a swimming pool in a fluoridated area.

Fluoridation is a huge imposition on people that don’t want it

Therefore, having fluoride chemicals added to a public water supply is obviously a huge imposition on people who want to avoid it. Compare this to people wanting fluoride. They can brush their teeth with a fluoride toothpaste. Simple, especially considering most people already do this so there is no imposition to them at all by not having it in the water.According to the Ministry of Health’s Oral Health Survey, 93% of people brush their teeth with a fluoride toothpaste.

Fluoridation is disrespectful

Fluoridation promoters argue that “fluoridation ensures that fluoride gets to those that need it most”.Aside from the fact that we believe no one needs to ingest fluoride and that the people they claim “need it most” will actually be the people that are most likely to suffer the toxic effects of fluoride. What they are actually saying is “if we don’t have fluoridation, we have no way of forcing fluoride onto people we think should have it”.

The arrogance of this sentiment is staggering.Everyone has the right to informed consent to a medical treatment/therapeutic intervention.No one is allowed to go into someone’s home and put a medication into someone else’s drinking water. No one is allowed to spike someone’s drink in any situation, regardless or whether they believe it is in the best interest of the person or not. In fact, they would be arrested for doing so.It is an anomaly that our current law allows local councillors to do so behind the safety of the Council. It also means that those of us that have given our informed non-consent, are still subjected to this therapy/medical treatment.

The NZ School Dental Statistics are the most robust set of data we have on dental health in New Zealand. The Ministry of Health have now published the 2015 data which show no difference in decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.
See Graphs