The water fluoridation fight is set to continue in the Court of Appeal.
Anti-fluoride campaigners, New Health NZ, today filed a notice of appeal in the Court of Appeal against a High Court decision upholding the lawfulness of water fluoridation.
The High Court affirmed last month the right of local government to fluoridate drinking water.
In his decision, Justice Rodney Hansen threw out claims from anti-fluoride campaigners, who had disputed the South Taranaki District Council’s decision to add fluoride to drinking water in Waverley and Patea.
It was within the council’s legal power, and right mind, to add fluoride to drinking water, he said.
That decision did not satisfy New Health NZ chairman David Sloan, who said the judgment paved the way for mass medication.
The basis of the appeal was the fluoride being used in the water supply coming within the definition of a “medicine” under the Medicines Act. It was a “medical treatment” under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, he said.
