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Speaker 1: Fluor rides back front and center. So Winston Peters has

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Speaker 1: decided councils should hold a referendum on whether this fluor

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Speaker 1: ride in a water Now members bill is going to

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Speaker 1: be put in the ballot. To that effect, the Health

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Speaker 1: Minister Sime and Brown said, don't worry about it's not

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Speaker 1: going to change. New Zealand Dental Association policy director Robert Wyman,

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Speaker 1: Robin Wyman rather as with us, Robin.

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Speaker 2: Morning to you, Good morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: It's the weirdest thing. I still don't understand why we

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Speaker 1: battle fluoride the way we do, but funarraise battling at

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Speaker 1: the moment, And there was a meeting in Rotaruo yesterday

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Speaker 1: and everyone got angsty about it. At the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, should the Health Department have the power to

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Speaker 1: direct or not?

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Speaker 2: Well, we think it's actually a sensible piece of legislation

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Speaker 2: that puts the balance of issues that need to be

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Speaker 2: thought about in the right places. In the end, somebody

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Speaker 2: has to make a decision about this, and the idea

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Speaker 2: that this is a health decision on the health issues

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Speaker 2: that the Director General of Health looks after is a

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Speaker 2: good idea. You have to also understand though that Internet legislation,

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Speaker 2: the Director General has to consult with the councils or

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Speaker 2: the water supplies about the issues that they know about,

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Speaker 2: which is things like whether it's technically possible in how

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Speaker 2: complex and expensive it would be to actually throw it

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Speaker 2: out the supply that has to all be weighed up.

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Speaker 2: So and now, of you, it puts the responsibilities in

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Speaker 2: the right swim lane.

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Speaker 1: If you like. Okay, But having said that, it's sort

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Speaker 1: of different. I mean what I'm getting from fung array

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Speaker 1: in places like Rodorua, it's not about the piping or

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Speaker 1: the cost. It's about that we don't want to and

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Speaker 1: we should decide is that reasonable or not.

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Speaker 2: Well, we went through a whole process when the legislation changed,

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Speaker 2: like lots of other decisions that the country made through

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Speaker 2: a select committee process, and there were plenty of submissions

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Speaker 2: made and there was a weighing up of the pros

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Speaker 2: and cons of the information. So I don't think it

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Speaker 2: is fair to say that there's no input from the public.

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Speaker 2: But at some point you have to stop in the

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Speaker 2: groom and discussing it and getting on with making it remore.

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Speaker 1: I'm a flu rid fan happy to say so, But

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Speaker 1: why it is? What is it that's out there. That's

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Speaker 1: still controversial that people are going to flood me now

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Speaker 1: with texts going.

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Speaker 2: Well, there are a range of health conditions that are

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Speaker 2: ranged that could potentially be related to fluoride. And I've

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Speaker 2: been doing this for about thirty five years now and

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Speaker 2: they keep changing. But the one that's current, and there's

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Speaker 2: one that's very much known, and that is whether or

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Speaker 2: not you get fluorosis on the teeth, which is white

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Speaker 2: or yellow changes on the teeth that can happen if

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Speaker 2: you actually get the fluorid levels too high, but not

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Speaker 2: at the levels that we floridate in New Zealand. The

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Speaker 2: current debate is around intellectual development and cognitive ability. The

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Speaker 2: evidence on there is shown again that at the levels

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Speaker 2: we fluoridate at in New Zealand and Australia and other

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Speaker 2: countries like ourselves, that is not shown to have an

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Speaker 2: effect if you get the levels too high. There's an

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Speaker 2: unknown debate about that one.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Robin, appreciate your expertise. Robin Wyman. I've been on

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Speaker 1: florid my whole life and look at me, I'm a genius.

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Speaker 1: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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