Canada - Who should decide on fluoride?

A recent study published in the Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology journal compared tooth decay rates of Grade 2 students in Calgary and Edmonton. Fluoridation of municipal drinking water ended in Calgary in 2011, but fluoride is still added to the water in Edmonton.

The study found the rate of tooth decay from 2004 to 2014 increased in both cities but the rate of tooth decay was worse in Calgary. The results of this study has renewed the debate on whether fluoride should be added to the drinking water or not. CTV News reported comments from a Calgary dentist, Dr. Leonard Smith who stated that “The fact that our city had chosen to remove fluoride has been one of the most anti-public health measures ever in the city of Calgary.”

This statement highlights an important point in this debate. The decision on fluoride in our water is a public health issue. Therefore the decision should be made by Alberta Health Services and not municipal councils.

The town of Okotoks stopped adding fluoride to the municipal water supply in December 2012. I was in my first term on town council at the time and it was an incredibly difficult decision. We had medical professionals on one side of the debate telling us that the fluoride is good for teeth and does no harm.

We had medical professionals on the other side of the debate telling us that the fluoride creates brittle bones for seniors. Representatives from Alberta Health Services made presentations to council stating that we should keep the fluoride in the water.

On several occasions when I asked if Alberta Health Services would be making provincial policy changes to require fluoride in municipal drinking water their consistent answer was always, “No, this is a municipal decision, not a decision for Alberta Health Services.”

If they were 100 per cent positive that it is only good and does no harm, why wouldn’t they make it a requirement for towns and cities across the province?

Once the fluoride is added to the drinking water it is extremely difficult to take it out. If someone doesn’t want to ingest fluoride it is almost impossible for them to remove it from their water. If fluoride isn’t added to the water, people who want fluoride can use fluoride toothpaste and fluoride mouthwash relatively easily.

Since I am not a medical professional and Alberta Health Services will not make the decision, I thought it best to not have fluoride in the water and let people decide for themselves if they want to use fluoride as part of their oral hygiene routine.

James Reeves • 13 hours ago

One need not be a scientist to understand that it is immoral to medicate everyone with fluoride without permission. We should be the ones who should be deciding what we put into our bodies and not the federal government or the local government which is putting fluoride into our water. We should control our own destiny.

Those who desire fluoride are welcome to put it in their own glass of water, as much as they wish. Leave the rest of us out of it.

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  Steven Slott  James Reeves • 11 hours ago

  James Reeves

  There is no medication involved in water fluoridation. There are simply fluoride ions, identical to those which have always existed in water. To suddenly proclaim this fluoride to be medication could not be any more ridiculous. No court of last resort has ever affirmed the "forced medication" nonsense in spite of antifluoridationists repeatedly wasting court time and resources trotting it in over the past decades.

  That you believe water flowing from your faucet somehow controls your "destiny" is indicative of a cognitive deficiency of your own, not a problem with water fluoridation.

  If you wish to placate your irrational phobia of fluoride in water, you are certainly free to obtain your water from a source with content which suits you. No one is forcing you to do anything in regard to fluoridation.

  Steven D. Slott, DDS
  Information Director 
  American Fluoridation Society

Irrational phobia? That's a new one Steven.