Canada - Calgary councillor revives call for city to take another look at fluoride research

CALGARY—Calgary could be headed for another round of the fluoride debate as a city councillor revives a proposal to look at research on how removing fluoride from city water has affected Calgarians’ dental health.

Councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart will bring a motion to next week’s council meeting that was originally introduced and defeated in 2016. It asks council to “engage” the University of Calgary’s O’Brien Institute for Public Health to conduct “an objective assessment of the evidence” on community water fluoridation.
But she said she’s open to persuasion on the topic, and her intent isn’t to rehash the arguments for and against fluoride.

“That’s where I’m sure people will try to go. I’ll keep standing up and saying, ‘That’s not the point of this notice of motion. Please keep people on track.’”

Calgary city council voted to stop fluoridating the city’s water in 2011. At the time, Colley-Urquhart, who has now been in office nearly 20 years, voted in favour of taking it out. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that is routinely added to water supplies in many countries to prevent tooth decay and cavities.

Calgary has held no less than five plebiscites on whether to put fluoride in city water, ultimately voting to approve it in both 1989 and 1998.

Back in 2016, council voted Colley-Urquhart’s motion down 9-5. She said Friday that she hasn’t spoken to her council colleagues to gauge their support for taking another look at her proposal, so she’s not sure what may come of the idea this time.

“I am letting them each do their own research ... I’m not going to be lobbying people over the weekend,” she said.

“It was so disappointing the last time. You’re saying no to have this work done. So ethically and morally myself, as an elected official, I feel I have a duty to bring this forward.”