Water
Michael Connett
American lawyer Michael Connett has been booked to speak in Cambridge early next month.
Connett has been a prominent figure in a legal crusade against fluoride in drinking water in the US, and he will add firepower to Fluoride Free NZ campaigner Kane Titchener’s push to stop Waipā District Council adding fluoride to Cambridge’s supply.
The Ministry of Health recommends adding fluoride to drinking water and the requirement to do in Cambridge so was made in July 2022 by outgoing Director-General of Health Sir Ashley Bloomfield. It has not been added to supplies in Waipā before.
Kane Titchener
Connett has argued, as does Titchener, that fluoride presents an unreasonable risk of neurological harm.
News of his visit comes on the heels of the release of a University of Queensland study which found no link between exposure to water fluoridation as a young child and negative cognitive development.
A study of 357 people, now aged 16 to 26 years old, found those who consistently drank fluoridated water had an IQ score 1.07 points higher on average than those who did not.
Titchener responded that a subsequent paper released this month said that 52 of 59 studies linked higher fluoride levels with lower IQ and the average loss was 7 points.
