I’ve looked into this year’s district health board candidates to help you keep quacks off your DHB this election.
Unless you live in Southland, this year you probably get to vote for several spots on your local district health board. With the move to DHBs making decisions about water fluoridation, there’s a danger that some of the candidates standing could be anti-fluoride or worse. And if they’re crafty, they likely won’t make that clear in their candidate profile that you get in the post with your voting papers.
Over the past week or so, I’ve looked through all the profiles for DHB candidates throughout the country, and followed up on anything that looked like a red flag for quackery. While many candidates looked great, I also found some that you probably don’t want to vote for such as a homeopath who’s been censured for false advertising, someone who promotes detox diets through her business and claims they can cure allergies and other diseases, and a chiropractor who claims to treat babies for colic. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
We’re also lucky that the anti-fluoride lobby group Fluoride Free New Zealand has published a survey with responses from many council and DHB candidates regarding their thoughts on fluoride. It’s very kind of them to have spared a thought for sceptics and published such a useful resource.
All the information I found has been compiled, with the help of Hayden Donnell, into a voting guide over on The Spinoff. If you still have your DHB candidates to vote for, have a read before you do:
Quack hunt: Our vital tool for stopping anti-science crackpots infiltrating your DHB
Honest Universe 