SOMETHING IN THE WATER
This year, New Zealanders will get the chance to have their say on two controversial issues, euthanasia and cannabis legalisation. There is another contentious issue, however, that long predates these two – water fluoridation. Water fluoridation is even thornier, in a way, because those who oppose it can’t easily opt out.
For a naturally recurrent mineral already present in water, air and some foods, fluoride has attracted fierce opposition since it was first added to drinking water in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1945. As I discovered when writing Tooth and Veil, my soon to be released book about school dental nurses, New Zealand was the second country in the world, after the US, to fluoridate drinking water. The story of that experiment, with the deceptions, misinformation, paranoia, rancour and suspicion of both sides, helps explain why water fluoridation remains highly controversial 65 years later, and why both sides are still deceiving the public.
In 1954, the Health Department engaged school dental nurses in a 10-year study on water fluoridation to demonstrate its effectiveness in reducing dental decay. Hastings, which had already fluoridated its water, was chosen as the subject of the study, while nearby non-fluoridated Napier, with its identical water supply, was the control. After just 27 months, the Health Department was reporting “spectacular results” of a 50-60% reduction in tooth decay among Hastings children.
One person who needed no convincing about the benefits was Auckland dentist John Colquhoun, who had closely followed American studies on fluoridation. A softly spoken man with a strong social conscience, Colquhoun (who died in 1999) saw fluoridation as a way to reduce disadvantage in dental health for those living in low-income areas. As an Auckland city councillor, he was able to persuade the council to fluoridate the city’s water supply, despite fierce opposition from some fellow councillors and the newly formed New Zealand Anti-Fluoridation Society.
Years later, as Auckland’s principal dental officer supervising the region’s school dental service, Colquhoun became the country’s leading advocate of fluoridation. His Health Department bosses were so impressed they sent him on a world study tour so he could become their expert on fluoridation and
