Canada - Fluoride debate on tap for council meeting

Fluoride debate on tap for council meeting
Chris Shannon
SYDNEY — The debate over water fluoridation will have its two sides heard with experts weighing in at Cape Breton regional council Tuesday.
Topics : University of Calgary , Calgary Herald , Holy Angels High School , Sydney , North Sydney , Glace Bay
Several health professionals and scientists will make presentations on both sides of the controversial issue.
Community activist Marlene Kane has pushed for an end to water fluoridation in the municipal water system in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality over the past few years.
It’s her second attempt since 2009 to reverse a decades-old policy of injecting the municipal water systems in Sydney, North Sydney, Glace Bay and New Waterford with fluoride as a medicating ingredient against tooth decay.
Many people believe overexposure to fluoride can cause dental fluorosis, which leaves pits and white marks on teeth, and alters the development of growing teeth in children.
Kane said it comes down not only to a health issue, but an ethical one.
“No one has the right to force medicate any individual, and in this instance, thousands of people are being forced medicated without their permission because they’re not putting it in the drinking water not to treat the water but to treat people,” she said.
The type of fluoride used in the CBRM is called hydrofluorisilic acid, which is a byproduct from fertilizer and is certified for use in water supplies, CBRM water utility manager Mike MacKeigan said during a meeting in February.
Dr. James Beck, an influential biophysicist at the University of Calgary who played a key role in convincing politicians to end water fluoridation in that city, will present his case to council in hopes the municipality will end the practice here.
Beck said there is no discernible proof that water fluoridation prevents tooth decay.
“It is true that cavities in poor children in industrialized countries has decreased over the past decades. But that has happened to the same extent where water is not fluoridated as where it is fluoridated,” he said in letter published in the Calgary Herald in February.
“This improvement is likely due to improved diet and dental care and possibly to the topical effect of fluoride. Topical, not from swallowing fluoride.”
During his short visit, Beck will also speak to the public. An information session on water fluoridation was held scheduled for Holy Angels High School on Monday night.
Local pediatrician Dr. Andrew Lynk and four other health professionals will present the case for maintaining fluoridated water at CBRM council’s monthly meeting at the Civic Centre, which begins at 6 p.m.

Don't like the look of the water.