"A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed...When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic." ---Dresden James

Waitati, Karatane, and Warrington Campaign

October 2008

Next Waikouaiti Community Board meeting Wednesday 8th of October.

June 2008

Channel 9 TV had agreed to screen the interview with Christopher Bryson on his book "The Fluoride Deception", however Rodney Bryant of the Dunedin City Council arranged for the screening to be withdrawn, first claiming falsely that this was to advertise our DVD, and then insisting that under the broadcasting standards they had to put opposing views at the same time. (See emails obtained under Official Information legislation) In fact the standards say that for controversial issues a balance of views must be put within the same timeframe. So a debate following the screening within a week would comply.

In the end a debate alone was held, with Olive McRae, Dr Bruce Spittle, and Mary Byrne putting the case against fluoridation. The "pro" side struggled to get a third member for their side.

21st April 2008

COMMUNITY BOARD VOTES TO REQUEST REFEREDUM FOR WAITATI AND WARRINGTON

On Wednesday the 16th April the Waikouaiti community board considered the issue of the northern water scheme, currently under construction, being fluoridated.

Having been presented with a petition from the community with 231 signatories asking for a local referenda, and a series of question, on the 5th of March, the community board were due to discuss the issue and come up with a resolution on the matter.

The meeting began with Olive addressing the council recommending that the board support a localised referendum on the basis that the community had clearly showed support for this action, that fluoridation was unsafe, and the safety concerns had not been addressed.

Olive commented on the fact that Pam Jordan from the Dunedin City Council (DCC) had spoken to the contractors who organise referenda, and they had given an current estimation of ten thousand dollars for a postal referenda in the Waikouti Coast area.

Olive also explained the similarities between Petone and the Waikouti Coast area, and how the Hutt City Council had remedied the issue (consultation followed by non-fluoridated water).

A short while later the chairperson (Alasdair Morrison) began to start the discussion about the fluoride issue.

The Chairperson had previously noticed that fluoridation had been omitted from the agenda printed by DCC. He had contacted DCC who advised they had forgotten, and would correct it. The next copy of the agenda still had fluoridation omitted. The Chairperson contacted the DCC again, and again was advised they had “forgotten”, and would correct it.

picture of Tony Avery At this point Tony Avery (pictured to the right) informed the chairperson that fluoride was not on the agenda, and therefore technically could not be discussed. This was the first time Mr Avery had attended one of the community board meetings.

The chairperson went on to explain the history, that he had asked for the error to be corrected, and that this had clearly not been done, however it was clear from the minutes at the previous community board meeting and the public audience present to hear the fluoride issue addressed, that fluoride was indeed on the agenda.

Mr Avery refused to acknowledge this, clearly stating that it didn't matter for what reason the word "fluoridation" was missing, the fact was it was not on the agenda and therefore could not be discussed.

After five minutes of polite arguing amongst themselves, the board agreed that the matter could not wait till the next meeting, and that there was special reason why we needed to address it that night. Mr Avery was clearly very annoyed at this.

After some further discussion Nancy Higgins put a motion to the floor that the community board support a local referenda, this was supported by Geraldine Tait, and Andrew Barratt. Murray Holland, Gerard Collings and Alasdair Morrison abstained. Consequently the motion was passed.

Gerard put a motion forward that all public health warnings that have been released by any other local councils be released to the residents of the Waikouaiti coast, via a mail out. This was supported by Murray Holland.

It was mentioned several times at the meeting, the importance of starting to get some answers to the questions Olive presented to council and the board the previous month.

As the Waikouaiti Coast councillor, Andrew Noone, was not present it was not possible to ascertain what stage the questions were at.

The following day Olive phoned Andrew to check on the progress only to be told that when he told me a number of weeks ago that the council had decide to "let the annual plan run its course, and then revalue the situation," he had been referring to the questions as well.

Olive was definitely not aware of this and mentioned that the community board had been under the assumption that the questions were in the process of being answered. Andrew said that he had mentioned this to the chairperson also, and that he would contact the chairperson and make that clear.

8th March 2008

On Monday 25th February we held a meeting in the Waitati hall 20kms north of Dunedin to educate the public about artificial fluoridation.

In the weeks leading up to the meeting Olive estimates that she contacted thousands of people via email and personal telephone calls to invite them to the meeting.

FANNZ donated $200 for one thousand colour brochures that were delivered to nearly every house in the area.

Attendance to the meeting was around 45 people, which is considered a good turn out for the area, although Olive had expected more due to the extensive advertising.

The meeting went very well, with four guest speakers taking to the stage from FANNZ.

Those were Don Church, Bruce Spittle, Imelda Hitchcock, and Yvonne McDonald.

These speakers presented the facts very well, with Bruce even treating the audience to a great song about the dangers of Fluoride.

Dunedin's community paper "The Star", that is delivered to every household in Dunedin and available at local shops of all communities surrounding Dunedin, published a five page special about artificial water fluoridation the same week.

This special was the feature story of the front cover titled: Fluoride: Poison or Panacea?

This coverage is to be commended for it's unbiased approach and can be viewed at www.thestar.co.nz

A petition signed by 222 residents of the Waikouaiti coast was presented to the Community Board on the 5th March by Olive McRae with the support of local resident John Salter.

This petition was accompanied by a series of questions which we understand will be forwarded to the Dunedin City Council (DCC) if the Waitati Community Board cannot answer themselves.

The petition and questions will also be presented to the DCC at the Infrastructure Services committee this Monday 10th March.

Olive has asked that the Community Board or DCC provide answers to these questions and give the residents of the Waikouaiti coast the chance to vote on the addition of artificial Fluoridation through referenda.

8th Feb 2008

The tender award of the pipeline is approximately 4-5 weeks late. The completion dates to each township are yet to be finalized, subject to confirmation by Delta, the first planning meeting set for mid Jan 2008.

The tender prices were well above cost & to save some money the pipeline will now only supply Waitati & Warrington (the two communities that voted against the pipe in the first place)! The second cost cutting measure is that an existing pipeline will not be replaced, but rather be used in its present state. Investigations as to what state this pipe is in & how this will effect the Fluoridated water are underway by myself at the moment. The northern water scheme is already running over budget & only as far as the communities that don't want it!

31st Jan 2008 by Olive McRae

Dr Bruce Spittle, myself, & a local Waitati resident had a guided tour of the Mt. Grand water treatment station. My aim in attending this tour was to establish a clearer picture of the work involved in keeping my community Fluoride free, while still allowing the pipeline to service us. Sadly the pipeline will be linked in a suburb of Dunedin as opposed to @ the treatment station. This affectively means that keeping our supply Fluoride free will cost millions of dollars. The only other means, is to stop the Fluoridation of the whole Dunedin area. This is a much larger task, but still achievable if people are willing to look at the facts. With a predominately conservative council this task may take sometime. On this tour I learnt that the MOH monitor all chemical feeding error reports, scrutinizing this data, asking for explanations as to why at certain times, chemicals were over or under dosed. This scrutinize applies to ALL chemical additives apart from Fluoride! It would seem that no body is particularly interested if the dose of Fluoride is accidently increased. This seems extremely interesting to me, given the fact that the MOH often rant that dosage is not an issue, & that they have it right. Who would know if they didn't? So its back to the drawing board for campaign strategies & this moment. Camping on the proposed pipeline site is now well insight.

January 2008

Public Meeting to be held in Waitati at 7.30pm Monday 25th February 2008 to discuss the proposed fluoridation of the Dundedin Northern Water scheme.

PLUS

Waitati Film Society special screening
'The Fluoride Deception'
26th Feb 8pm
Waitati Film Society located corner of Harvey St. & Orokonui Rd

November 2007

The 1990 Otago area health boards recommendation to the Dunedin city councillors that "current fluoridation of public water supplies should be continued and that consideration should be given to the fluoridation of public water supplies that are not fluoridated".

This recommendation is currently being put into plan by the council, as they prepare to build a large pipe from Dunedin city up the east coast. This pipe will supply Waitati, Karatane, and Warrington, aganist these small communities wishes. These communities are very independent, strong, potentially self sufficient places were fluoride will not be easily swallowed.

The pipeline will cost millions of dollars, the exact amount is unknown at this stage as is nearly any information about the monster pipe apart from that the water will come from Mount Grand which is fluoridated.

Waitati is home to a major local organic fresh produce grower, along with many elderly people that have no means of sourcing their own water.

Current council member for this area Andrew Noone will not comment on his opinion on fluoride and hence won't help. Local community board member Geraldine Tait has been extremely supportive in trying to stop the pipe. Geraldine has been involved in many active moves to stop the pipe and has offered to help me put together the paperwork needed to educate the public and record thier opposition.

We must stop this pipe! It will be millions of dollars to build and maintain. It does not promote the essence of these communities! These communities have the ability to source local, natural, unpolluted water!

To join in the fight to stop fluoride from polluting more of Dunedin and its surrounding areas please email Olive McRae @ nomassmedication@gmail.com or phone 03 4821347 or 021 1745227.