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High Court hears Whangarei District Council’s bid to delay fluoridation

Whangarei District Council news

On Tuesday the High Court in Wellington heard Whangarei District Council’s (WDC) application for an interim injunction to delay the start of fluoridation until its substantive case is heard later this year.

Under a 2021 amendment to the Health Act, the Director-General of Health ordered WDC in July 2022 to begin fluoridation by March 28, 2025.

However, WDC’s lawyer, Jeremy Browne, argued that complying with this order would put the council in breach of the Water Services Drinking Act (2021), which mandates the provision of “safe” drinking water, defined as water that does not pose a serious health risk.

Browne presented scientific evidence from the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s 2024 review, which identified fluoride as a neurotoxicant, and affidavits from toxicology experts Bruce Lanphear and Philippe Grandjean, challenging the Ministry of Health’s stance that fluoridation is safe.

Crown lawyer Jason Varuhas defended the Ministry’s directive, asserting that the government had reviewed all evidence and maintained that fluoridation remains “safe and effective”, particularly for improving dental health among disadvantaged Māori children.

Browne countered, claiming that recent studies do not support the effectiveness of fluoridation in reducing social inequalities in oral health.

The judge reserved her decision but committed to delivering a ruling before the March 28 deadline.

Image credit: Pixabay

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Yeah, the “Crown” is really safe and effective for our health alright. We would all be much healthier and happy without the “Crown” in our lives.

  2. These emissaries are so far removed from real life that they do not even consider how they have been engineered to come to verdicts like what WE the people of Godzone had to endure in recent times.
    When will that stop?
    Has no one of them enjoyed an unadulterated upbringing (excuse the pun)?
    Have they never had the sweetness of grandparents to guard them against the folly of well-meaning but mislead modern socialist narrative and ‘justice’?
    Are they not quite likely grandparents themselves, ‘judging’ between what they (maybe unwittingly) have signed up to and what their descendants will inherit?
    Do they ever think of the world they leave behind?
    Have they ever dug for potatoes, tilled the soil, slaughtered prey, cooked a decent meal?
    Sucking on a tit does not qualify for merit to be leading a people, even as a judge!

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