Australian and New Zealand Advisory Board Members

The process of adding fluoridation chemicals to our drinking water is strongly opposed by thousands of professionals worldwide and this list is steadily growing. Fluoride Free Australia is represented by an Advisory Board and a Professional Network comprised of Australian and international health, science, legal and other relevant professionals who are part of this growing movement.
Meet our A&NZ Advisory Board members…
Dr Mark Diesendorf

BSc (Hons) PhD in
Applied Mathematics

Dr Mark Diesendorf is Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Humanities & Languages at the University of New South Wales (now called ‘UNSW Sydney’). He originally trained as a physical scientist and then expanded his interests into energy and health issues. Previously, at various times, he was a Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO, Professor of Environmental Science and Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology Sydney, and Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at UNSW. 

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Merilyn Haines

BAppSc (Med Lab Tech)

Merilyn Haines is a retired Medical Laboratory Scientist of 35 years and is interested in many public health issues. Her concerns about water fluoridation began with research in the 1980s which has continued since then. When Premier Anna Bligh commenced forcing fluoridation on Queenslanders in late 2008, Merilyn and Queenslanders For Safe Water worked tirelessly, providing ethical arguments and a multitude of international scientific evidence showing fluoride’s adverse health effects and lack of efficacy to all Queensland MPs and Councillors.

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David McRae

BSc(Hons);
Grad Dip Human Services

David McRae has worked in health promotion, mental health services and stress management across his professional career. In 2016 he published a book: “Freedom from stress and anxiety” (self pub). When his home city of Geelong came under threat of water fluoridation in 2002 he examined the issue exhaustively, concluding that it violated important principles of public health and health promotion. He entered the public debate and was shocked to find that most of the government and dental officials he met with had little grasp of the science or ethical issues of fluoridation. One statement of his position is available to watch here.

Allan Jones

B.Eng (PE)

Allan Jones is a retired Process Engineer with extensive experience working for many major corporations – including Colgate Palmolive – in various process engineering roles, often involving products containing compounds that are collectively referred to as fluoride-based, fluoride-attached, or fluoride-synthesised.  He is also a retired Grade 4 Industrial Trainer in OHAS applications.

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Dr John Ryan

MBBS (Qld, 1971) M Sc Nutrition, Distinction
(Lon. 1980), FRACGP, DCH (RCP&S,Irel), FAMAC, FACNEM (Nutritional & Envtal Med), MRCGP(UK) 

Dr John Ryan is a general practitioner specialising in medical care favouring the avoidance of drugs and surgery. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Queensland in 1971, and MSc Nutrition Distinction (London) in 1980. He has a post graduate qualification in Children’s Diseases (DCH).

He is past Queensland Chair of AMAC (Australian Medical Acupuncture College), ACNEM (Australian College of Nutrition and Environmental Medicine) and AIMA (Australian Integrative Medical Association). He is a fellow and has served as a national examiner in the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Examinations. 

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Dr Mike Godfrey

LRCP.MRCS; MBBS

Mike Godfrey qualified LRCP.MRCS (England) and MBBS (London) in 1963. He joined a General Practice in Mt Maunganui, New Zealand in 1971, after seven years in various hospital posts in England. He left general practice in 1986 to establish an environmental health and chelation clinic in Tauranga and still works part-time although retired from a registered practice in 2007.

Dr Godfrey was a founding member and past-President of the New Zealand Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology and a Clinical Associate of the Graduate School of Integrative Medicine, Swinburn University, Melbourne.

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Dr Lawrie Brett

BDS

I graduated BDS from University of Otago in 1974 after studying two years of chemistry. I always had a love of chemistry and this led to an interest in dental materials.

After working in Australia and the UK, I returned to New Zealand in 1978 when my wife and I bought a small practice in Whangarei, two hours north of Auckland. I spent my working life in the practice, selling it to my long term partner in 2015 when I retired.

In the 1980s, Dr John Colquhoun (former Chief Dental Officer of New Zealand and fluoride researcher) and then mayor of Auckland Sir Dove-Meyer Robinson, upset the health establishment by publicly opposing water fluoridation. It seemed the right thing to update my knowledge in this area of public health policy and I have been strongly opposed to water fluoridation since then. Over the years there have been many scrapes with the Establishment Health Authorities with successful campaigns around New Zealand to prevent or halt water fluoridation. The battles are over but the war goes on!