There is currently a bill working its way through parliament which proposes moving the decision to fluoridate water supplies away from local councils and into the hands of DHBs. This appears to be a very good move, as fluoridation is a health issue and DHBs are much better suited to weighing up the pros and cons than local councils are. Councils in NZ have historically been bamboozled by Fluoride Free NZ, our local anti fluoride group, and have in some cases made decisions to remove fluoride.

With elections coming up soon, FFNZ are attempting to find and promote (opens new window) those candidates for District Health Boards who are anti fluoride. At the Society for Science Based Healthcare there has been a similar effort to look at candidates from around the country and spot which ones are obviously not aligned with evidence based, or science based, healthcare. It's worrying to see just how many candidates make their living from selling therapies that have been shown to be ineffective, such as chiropractic and acupuncture.

In a weird twist, one candidate in Timaru claims that she had a gun pointed at her (opens new window) while campaigning recently, although this claim has not been substantiated by the police yet: