City of Calgary, Canada removes fluoride from drinking water

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Fluoride is added to drinking water in many regions in order to help prevent tooth decay.
Image: Jenny Downing.

Calgary city council voted 10 to 3 on Wednesday to stop fluoridating their water supply. This overturns a previous plebiscite from 1989 to add the fluoride in an attempt to reduce tooth decay.

Opponents of water fluoridation claim that there could be unknown health effects of fluoride, and question its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay. They also claim that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to use fluoride. However, Alberta Health Services maintains that current evidence shows that fluoride is both safe, and beneficial to dental health.

It is estimated that no longer fluoridating the water supply could save Calgary's city council C$750 thousand (€550 thousand) annually, as well as cutting a C$6 million (€4.3 million) upgrade to the fluoridation system.

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Sources

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has more about this subject:

Water fluoridation controversy

Andrew Moran. "Calgary City Council vote in favour of removing fluoride in water" — Digital Journal, February 9, 2011
Richard Cuthbertson. "Anti-fluoride activists thrilled with Calgary vote; experts warn of health impact" — Calgary Herald, February 9, 2011
"Fluoride hot topic among Calgarians" — CTV Calgary, February 9, 2011

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Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.