Canada - Ford: The Earth is round, and fluoridation is not harmful

One finds like-minded citizens in the strangest places. For me, it came when I agreed with Calgary city council’s enfant terrible, Ward 11 Coun. Jeromy Farkas. Knock me over with a feather. From the mouth of someone whom, I believe, is still growing his last set of molars, comes an adult opinion about fluoride.

During his campaign for office, he said fluoridation of water is “one of modern society’s premier innovations in health sciences.” Most scientists, doctors and dentists would agree with him. The result of Calgary arbitrarily removing fluoride from our water in 2011 has been an alarming increase in cavities among young children.

It seems silly to be debating proven science, something like questioning whether the Earth is round, whether vaccinating children is good for their health, or whether evolution is more than a “theory.”

When last I railed about fluoride being debated as a health issue, Jeromy was 10. For the first three (of five) plebiscites he hadn’t been born. He was one year old when Calgary voters finally approved adding fluoride to city water. That decision allowed him and his generational cohort the privilege of being raised with the same advantages as children in Edmonton, which not only has naturally fluoridated water from the North Saskatchewan but adds the mineral to bring the level up to the optimal amount of 0.7 parts per million.

How Calgary could have bowed to irrational fears and voodoo science and arbitrarily removed fluoride from our water is nothing short of ridiculous.

Now we are back in the heart of the original debate. A report from University of Calgary scientists on the efficacy of fluoridated water is expected within weeks. (There was no such science-based study done when city council voted to remove fluoride from our water.)

And coming out of the woodwork like a plague of termites are the anti-fluoride activists with their fear-mongering. (No names; no details. I won’t be party to giving them any publicity.)

Two activists (both bearing the honorific of Dr., although only one has a medical degree) are being given space in the new library on Saturday to present their backward views, including that fluoride can damage the brain. The laughable part of this (if fomenting fear is ever funny) is that such claims are based on “scientific” studies conducted in China, India and Mexico, as reported in the Herald last week. I’d suggest if the IQs of children under age 12 in those countries are being lowered and their cognitive functions harmed that science look at the toxicity of the occasionally fetid air — among other environmental disasters — rather than blaming fluoride.

As one would expect there are a few comments on this in the paper.