Open Parachute

March ’18 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking

Ken Perrott • Apr 02, 2018

• blog ranking,
• liturgy,
• mathematics,
• Sciblogs,
• sitemeter,
• statistics,
• utopia

Image credit: PABLO HELGUERA – Classical Cartoon At Noon: If Wagner Had A Blog I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing please check this out. Send me the URL for your site meter and I can correct the information … Read More

A conference paper on the maternal neonatal urinary fluoride/child IQ study has problems

Ken Perrott • Mar 30, 2018

• Health and Medicine,
• Science,
• Science and Society

Image credit: Do new mothers doing a Ph.D. get enough support? The anti-fluoride movement has certainly mobilised over the neonatal maternal urinary fluoride study which reported an association with child IQ. They see it as the best thing since sliced bread and believe it should lead to the end of fluoridation worldwide. They also seem to be putting all their eggs in … Read More

The 52 IQ studies used by anti-fluoride campaigners

Ken Perrott • Mar 28, 2018

• antifluoride,
• Connett,
• CWF,
• Dental fluorosis,
• endemic fluorosis,
• fluoride,
• Health and Medicine,
• health problems,
• IQ,
• Science,
• Science and Society,
• studies,
• water

Slide number 30 from Paul Connett presentation prepared for a talk at NZ Parliament buildings in February 2018. Continuing my critique of the presentation prepared by Paul Connett for his much-publicised meeting at Parliament Building in February. The meeting attracted only three MPs but his presentation is useful as it presents all the arguments anti-fluoride campaigners rely on at the … Read More

Why is it so difficult to get an open discussion on fluoridation?

Ken Perrott • Mar 22, 2018

• anti-fluoride,
• argument,
• debate,
• fluoride,
• Health and Medicine,
• Science,
• Science and Society,
• water

Yes, I know – everyone’s mind is already made up so participants just talk past each other. People’s positions on this and similar issues have become a matter of identity – people are driven by emotions, not information. But, the information is there – and while I agree many people are driven by emotions they often attempt to use that information to … Read More

Mary Byrne’s criticism is misplaced and avoids the real issues

Ken Perrott • Mar 14, 2018

• childhood,
• dentistry,
• endemic fluorosis,
• F exposure,
• fluoride,
• Health,
• Health and Medicine,
• misrepresentation,
• mother,
• pregnancy,
• Science,
• Science and Society,
• statistics,
• Urine,
• variance

First, thanks to Mary Byrne and FFNZ for this response (see Anti-fluoride group coordinator responds to my article). Hopefully, this will help encourage some good faith scientific discussion of the issues involved in my original article (Paul Connett’s misrepresentation of maternal F exposure study debunked). I am pleased to promote such scientific exchange. I will deal with the issues Mary … Read More

Anti-fluoride group coordinator responds to my article

Ken Perrott • Mar 13, 2018

• birth weight,
• communication,
• David Clark,
• fluoride,
• fluorosis,
• gestational age,
• Health and Medicine,
• IQ,
• pregnancy,
• Science,
• Science and Society,
• variables,
• water

My recent article Paul Connett’s misrepresentation of maternal F exposure study debunked got some online feedback and criticism from anti-fluoride activists. Mary Byrne, National coordinator Fluoride Free New Zealand, wrote a response and requested it is published on SciBlogs “in the interests of putting the record straight and providing balance.” I welcome her response and have posted it here. Hopefully, this will … Read More

Paul Connett’s misrepresentation of maternal F exposure study debunked

Ken Perrott • Mar 06, 2018

• activists,
• anti-fluoride,
• birth weight,
• cognition,
• commercial,
• endemic fluorosis,
• fluoridation,
• fluoride,
• forecasted values,
• Health and Medicine,
• IQ,
• maternal,
• Mexico,
• misinterpretation,
• New Zealand,
• Paul Connett,
• pregnancy,
• Science,
• Urine,
• water

Anti-fluoride campaigners are misrepresenting a recent Mexican study claiming its findings should cause governments around the world to abandon community water fluoridation (CWF). Their claims are unwarranted because the study has a high degree of uncertainty. Activists are misrepresenting the accuracy of the studies findings. Because Mexico has areas of endemic fluorosis the study itself is not relevant to CWF. Read More

Opinion: Anti-fluoride activist commits “Death by PowerPoint”

Ken Perrott • Feb 28, 2018

• district health boards,
• Drinking water,
• fluoridation,
• Health and Medicine,
• parliament,
• PowerPoint,
• Presentation,
• Science,
• water

We have all sat through boring, and counterproductive, PowerPoint presentations. Boring because the presenter breaks all the rule relevant to the preparation of visual displays. And counterproductive because, in the end, the audience does not remember any of the information the presenter attempts to convey. David JP Phillips gives some relevant advice on PowerPoint preparation in the video … Read More

Paul Connett “updates” NZ MPs about fluoride

Ken Perrott • Feb 22, 2018

• causation,
• community water fluoridation,
• correlation,
• Environmental,
• fluoride,
• Health and Medicine,
• IQ,
• pregnancy,
• Science,
• scientific literature,
• water

 Data from Bashash et al., (2017). Despite a statistically significant relationship of child IQ with mothers prenatal urinary fluoride, this explains only about 3% of the huge scatter in the data. I haven’t followed the latest speaking tour of Paul Connett – organised by the local Fluoride Free NZ organisation. But I watched a TV interview with him this … Read More

Anti-fluoride activists misrepresent another thyroid study

Ken Perrott • Feb 15, 2018

• Health and Medicine,
• Science,
• Science and Society

Anti-fluoride activists closely follow the publication of results from fluoride studies and react to new scientific papers in one of the following ways: Use it to claim community water fluoridation (CWF) is harmful – even if this requires misrepresentation or distortion of the studies findings (a recent example is the prenatal fluoride/child IQ study of Bashash et al., (2017)  heavily … Read More