Tçnâ koe,

 

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Under the Official Information Act (OIA), agencies are required to respond
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no later than 20 working days after receiving them.

If your request is for data that Health NZ holds, have you checked
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You can find further information about how OIA timeframes are calculated,
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[2]Official information calculators | Ombudsman New Zealand

 

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Ngâ mihi,
Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora

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Kia ora Alisha,
 
Thank you for your request of 25 March 2026 for the following information:
 
Under the Official Information Act 1982, I request the specific
evidentiary and toxicological foundation used to justify the 2017 update
to the Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs), specifically the decision to
increase the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) of fluoride for children
aged 0–8 to 0.20 mg/kg bw/day.
Please provide the following official information:
1. Skeletal Retention & Demographic Modeling:
Please provide all internal risk assessments, toxicological modeling, or
equity evaluations conducted prior to the 2017 UL increase that analysed
chronic  bioaccumulation risks for exclusively formula-fed infants. Please
specify if these assessments explicitly accounted for the disproportionate
cumulative exposure on ethnic cohorts with statistically higher
formula-feeding rates (specifically Māori and Pacific infants).
2. The Under-8 Evidentiary Baseline:
Given that the 2009 New Zealand Oral Health Survey excluded children under
8 from fluorosis diagnostic reporting, please provide the specific
contemporary domestic clinical datasets or epidemiological studies relied
upon in 2017 to conclude that doubling the UL would not inflict severe
structural harm (hypomineralization) on this unmonitored demographic.
3. Safety Benchmarks and Margins:
Please provide the internal policy documents or scientific guidelines
justifying the use of "severe dental fluorosis" as the primary or sole
biological benchmark for defining the UL, including documentation
explaining why standard toxicological safety margins (e.g., 10x or 100x
below the LOAEL) were not applied to the 2017 update.
4. Internal Communications:
Please provide all internal memoranda, meeting minutes, and communications
between policy/science teams, the NHMRC, and Crown Law between January
2016 and December 2017 referencing the fluoride UL/NRV update. I
specifically request any communications within this timeframe that
concurrently reference the pending New Health New Zealand Inc v South
Taranaki District Council litigation.
 
Your request asks for information which is more closely aligned with the
functions of the Ministry of Health.  
For this reason, Health New Zealand has decided to transfer your request
in full to under section 14(b)(ii) of the Official Information Act (OIA).
You can expect a response from the Ministry of Health in due course.
 
Under section 28(3) of the OIA you have the right to ask the Ombudsman
to review any decisions made under this request. 
The Ombudsman may be contacted
by email at: [1][email address] or by calling 0800 802 602. 
If you have any queries related to this request, please do not hesitate to
get in touch.  
 
Ngā mihi  

 

 

Michael

Government Services (OIA)
[2][email address]
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora

Statement of confidentiality: This email message and any accompanying
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delete this message

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