To fluoridate, or not to fluoridate – that is the question a group of concerned parents are asking in Barrhead.
Melissa Brade is a parent of a child who attends Dunstable School. The parents of that school recently voted unanimously to seek the elimination of fluoride from its water, Brade said. Following the meeting, the parents agreed to submit a letter of request to Pembina Hills Regional Division to find an alternate source of non-artificially fluoridated water for Dunstable School, and to notify the Town and County councils of the decision.
Brade has already gone before County councillors, but Town mayor Brian Schulz said his council will do its own research into the matter and will invite Brade to a future meeting. He said Barrhead residents voted in a plebiscite in October 1963 to add fluoride to the municipal water. That vote was 83 per cent in favour of fluoridation.
“I would like to see it go that way again,” Schulz said of a plebiscite. “Because of the ethical choice involved with this, every resident should have a say. We will do our due diligence and find out more facts to see if this is maybe something that should be changed. I appreciate the fact it was brought to our attention, and it could be something for the next election, because I believe in the majority rules.”
Brade was adamant in the fact she isn’t trying to force her opinion on anyone; rather, she is asking other residents to do their own research into the issue and get better informed. Her own research into fluoridated water is what led her to seek the elimination of fluoride from municipal drinking water.
Currently, Dunstable School has its water trucked in, and it’s deposited into a cistern system. That water comes from Barrhead, and it’s fluoridated, which is why the parents want to find an alternative water source.
“So far it looks like Dapp will be our best option, but I’ve been told that will be a very temporary solutions as that community is scheduled to start getting its water from Westlock,” Brade said. Barrhead Elementary School’s parents advisory committee also voted at its March meeting to support a similar motion as the one passed by Dunstable School. Furthermore, there is a petition circulating around Barr-head asking residents to support the idea of defluoridation.
Dunstable’s parents’ council believes it is important to share their message with the Town and County, so they could consider the information when making decisions regarding upgrades to the water treatment plant, Brade said.
“We just started with this, although I’ve been aware of the hazards for quite some time,” she said. “It seemed there was nothing we could do about it, until we found out about the upgrades to the water treatment facility.”
Brade said the parents were further motivated by the fact the city of Calgary elected to rid fluoride from its municipal water system. It was that decision that spurred conversation among Dunstable parents. She said there was no resistance from Dunstable, and the meeting had one of the biggest turnouts of the year.
“For Calgary, it is my understanding that it came down to an ethical concern,” she said. “They decided to go with caution, and to go with the ethical argument that no one should be forced to ingest something they don’t want to, and to eliminate fluoride completely from the drinking water. The city of Gatineau, Quebec, made a similar decision. And, to the best of my knowledge, the entire European Union has defluoridated.”
Ethics are a contributing factor in Dunstable School’s decision, she said, but the real issue lies in the health risks associated with fluoridated water. The fluoride that is put into municipal water is an industrial byproduct, she said. It’s called hydrofluorosilicic acid, or sodium fluoride, and it’s a main ingredient in rodent and insect poisons.
She said the fluoride doesn’t pose an immediate risk; rather it’s accumulative, because it deposits itself into soft tissues over time. For adults, drinking a few glasses a day probably won’t be that big of a deal, but for children who are drinking this water every day, it accumulates, she said.
“It has been proven that as many as 80 per cent of children in fluoridated communities have mild to moderate dental fluorosis, and that’s just an external sign of a bigger problem,” she said.
There is so much conflicting information out there, Brade said, that people should to take it upon him or herself to learn more about the issue. Most adults have grown up with the impression that fluoride in the water is a good thing, she added, so it will take work to tear down some old perceptions.
“This is something that is taking off,” she said. “There are numerous health risks involved with fluoridated water. We, as parents, looked at the worst-case scenarios of this. The health effects database lists fluoride as a toxin, and is ranked right between arsenic and lead. That’s quite concerning. It seems like common sense to start with clean water and let people make their own choices from there.”
