Open Parachute

This is a collection of articles written by Paul Connett and Ken Perrott in their exchange of opinions on the fluoridation of drinking water and related issues. While loosely titled The Fluoride Debate this was in no way meant to be a debate in the gladiatorial sense. It was not about “winners” and “losers.” Our intention was to discuss the science in a format encouraging good faith discussion and intelligent participation from commenters.

I leave it to readers to decide how successful, or otherwise, we have been in this.

Introducing the authors

The authors in this “debate’ have similar academic and professional backgrounds. Both have PhDs in chemistry, worked as research chemists and are now retired. Neither of us have done original research on fluoridation specifically, although both have become involved in the public discussion of it since there retirements.

Paul Connett is an executive director of the Fluoride Action Network and campaigns throughout the world against fluoridation. He is, together with James Beck & H. Spedding Micklem, author of the book “The Case Against Fluoride.” Paul has made several speaking tours in New Zealand as part of his campaign and will have another tour in February, 2014.

Ken Perrott is a retired research chemist. These days he writes a blog, Open Parachute, which deals issues related to science, human rights, philosophy and religion. Many of his articles have argued against pseudoscience and the misrepresentation of science. He has written a number of articles on scientific issues related to fluoridation.

Format of debate

The exchange occurred as posts on the blog Open Parachute. Paul originally proposed it as 5 pairs of articles with Paul starting and raising specific arguments against fluoridation followed by my reponse.– Paul Connett’s specific argument first with my response second. I thought this would be a convenient size for a series of blog articles.

Paul’s first article went live on October 30, 2013. Without the discipline of an external moderator the series ended up a longer than originally planned – we ended up with 8 pairs of articles, with my final closing article posted on January 23, 2014.

Responding to requests from commenters about my own personal, rather than scientific, motivations I also posted an extra article Why I support fluoridation on November 11. Inevitably its content was also debated.

Editing of articles

The articles here are basically the same as originally posted in the debate. I have corrected some typos and added reference lists to my own articles recognising that the hot links provided in a blog article may not be suitable for all readers of this document. I have avoided editing or altering Paul’s articles except for a few minor issues like adjusting image size.

Comment discussions

Many others, representing both sides of the “debate,” participated in this exchange through the comments section of each article. Some commenters were very well informed, often with professional experience related to fluoridation. There were almost 2000 comments in total with many of them containing useful information and citations. Unfortunately it is not feasible to include the comment discussion here but I urge interested readers to browse through them on-line.

Links to debate

You can easily find original blog articles, together with comments, at the link Fluoride Debate.

Advice to readers

Such lengthy articles, and so many of them, might be intimidating to some readers. My advice is to browse, read the articles that interest you or cover issues of interest. I imagine only the most dedicated reader would start at the beginning and read to the end.

Any reader wishing to make contact with me can do so via my About me blog page.

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