Fluoridating water has always been a controversial practice.
People bring it in and people take it out again and it seems the people most in tune with our teeth are being completely ignored on the subject.
In Okotoks, the practice of putting fluoride in the water was instituted in 1980 when a referendum was held on the subject. In 1998 the question was again put to residents and 60 per cent voted to keep it in the water.
In Calgary a similar situation arose with a narrow margin voting to fluoridate the water. On their administration’s recommendation city councilors voted to remove fluoride from the water a year ago. A councilor there was against fluoride in water and the city was facing a six million dollar upgrade to its water plants to handle fluoride and paid out $750,000 a year to provide it. Here in Okotoks fluoridation costs just under $10,000.
In Okotoks, coun. Florence Christophers is leading the charge to have the substance removed from the water supply. She sites bone brittleness in seniors as a reason to get rid of fluoride.
There are two camps on the matter. There are reports that state fluoride can cause all types of ailments, particularly in bones, and has also been linked to alzheimers and dementia, goiters and congenital malformations.
Dentists writing in the magazine Oral Health dispute those claims though. An article in their January 2012 issue reads, “The quality of evidence for these claims is low, and is unable to show a direct cause and effect relationship between fluoride and any of the above-mentioned ailments.”
Christophers provided information by the World Health Organization showing tooth decay had decreased in European towns and cities over 50 years where there is no fluoride in water. However, the same organization has called fluoridation of water “the most effective public health measure for the prevention of dental decay.”
No matter where the question comes up it seems the majority of dentists and health care experts are in favour of keeping fluoride in water. We trust dentists, with their seven years of schooling, to clean, maintain and care for our teeth, but when it comes to fluoridation we turn a deaf ear to their humble opinion.
Why is the general public being asked to make these decisions? Mayor Bill Robertson’s request that an expert panel speak on the matter prior to a decision is sound. Okotokians need to really listen to what doctors and dentists have to say on the issue and hopefully put this issue to rest once and for all.
