Reply to opinion article on water fluoridation

By John Holmes, Medical Officer of Health, Otago/Southland

People on the Waitati, Warrington water supply, who have previously used fluoride tablets as supplements, are advised that this is no longer necessary. The community water supply contains fluoride at the optimal level (0.7 – 1.0 mg/L) as does the water in urban Dunedin.

The “Public Information” provided by Fluoride Action Network Dunedin "…that it is now no longer safe to mix infants formula with tap water in your area. This is due to medication of the new water supply with Silico-fluoride, a dangerous neurotoxin. Babies are at extreme risk of fluoride poisoning when they are exposed to fluoridated tap water" is misleading and untrue.

In 2008 the Advertising Standards Authority decided that a flyer advertisement including similar claims, circulated by the Fluoride Action Network NZ in the Waitati district, breached the Advertising Code of Ethics. The Complaints Board said that claims in the advertisement linking fluoride with cancer, clearly played on fear. In the Complaints Board’s view, the same applied to the stated association of “fluoridated water with infant milk formula”. The Complaints Board said the Advertiser was entitled to express a view, but to do so in the manner before it played on fear, and as such rendered the advertisement in breach of Rule 6 of the Code of Ethics: "Advertisements should not exploit the superstitious, nor without justifiable reason, play on fear."

(The full decision is available at http://www.asa.co.nz/display.php?ascb_number=08280 )

Powdered infant formula available in New Zealand contains negligible amounts of fluoride. The major source of fluoride in infant formula is from the water used to reconstitute the powdered formula (provided it is fluoridated water). There is no evidence that the fluoride derived from water used to reconstitute the formula has any harmful effects in areas where the fluoride concentration is no more than 1.0 mg/L (Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Healthy Infants and Toddlers (Aged 0-2): A background paper. Wellington: Ministry of Health. 2008).

[Note from 'Blueskin News' editors: Public Health South was invited to reply to Olive McRae's article, the original of which can be read here: http://blueskin-co-nz.blogspot.com/2009/05/opinion-fluoride.html]

ENDS

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