Why the anti-fluoride haters are attacking a Calgary academic, calling her a 'fraud'

Google the University of Calgary professor’s name and the fourth entry declares that she is a fraud, a fanatic and a 'bald-faced liar'
For a mild-mannered public health researcher, Lindsay McLaren attracts more than her share of haters.

Google the University of Calgary professor’s name and the fourth entry declares that she is a fraud, a fanatic and a “bald-faced liar.”

Another website proudly declares one of her studies “debunked.” And the emailed feedback she receives contains “an aggressiveness I’ve never experienced,” she says.

McLaren’s notoriety arose after she began a long-term project to study the impact of fluoridating tap water — or ending fluoridation, as happened in her city six years ago.

Her study results have both confirmed fluoridation’s apparent benefits and discounted some of its alleged risks: they suggest that removing fluoride from Calgary’s water increased cavities in baby teeth, that the additive does not cause learning disabilities as some allege and that it’s not linked to thyroid disease.

Critics in the vocal anti-fluoride community trash the public health professor’s methods, and say her public support for fluoridation undermines her objectivity – and credibility.

McLaren refutes those charges, but it all seems to underscore the emotions inspired by an issue that, like the ache of a rotten tooth, refuses to fade away.

“Some of the comments that are being made are reasonable,” she concedes about the stream of personal email she’s received. “Others are just very, very aggressive, and there’s an aggressiveness I’ve never experienced prior to being in this field … Calling me a fraud, questioning my integrity.”

The drama around McLaren’s research comes amid a new attempt to get Calgary to restore fluoride to the tap water, after stopping it in 2011. A group called Calgarians for Kids Health urged voters to pick pro-fluoride candidates in the October municipal election.........................