As more councils reconsider whether to flouridate water supplies, a campaign group says the Ministry of Health is wasting money promoting fluoridation to communities which clearly do not want it.
New Plymouth District Council on voted on 13 October to stop fluoridating water supplies in the city and several towns, while Hutt City Council will debate the issue in November.
Fluoride Action Network president Lawrie Brett says although unbiased information is readily available the ministry has spent $1.2 million setting up the National Fluoride Information Service, which he says ignores adverse effects.
"It should by now surely be apparent that (fluoridation) is an idea whose time has been and gone," he says.
Mr Brett, a dentist, says money used to promote fluoridation would be better spent on frontline services to care for children's teeth.
