For decades, water fluoridation has played a key role in improving the oral health of North Americans, experts say, but the practice is coming under scrutiny in some communities as opponents gain new prominence in the U.S.
, pointing to research that cautions about the risks of exposure to the mineral in high doses.
Health Canada, the Canadian Dental Association and the Canadian Medical Association say decades of scientific evidence shows fluoridating water has dental-health benefits, particularly for people who don't have the means to go to the dentist or brush their teeth. Researchers found “significantly” more cavities in the Calgary kids – 64.8 per cent compared to 55.1 per cent in Edmonton.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was ordered in September to further regulate fluoride in drinking water. A federal judge ruled that while it's not certain the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, some research points to a risk that it could be. “Now that's just one study. I always say we need to look at the totality of the evidence when we're talking about this topic,” Till, also a clinical neuropsychologist and professor of psychology at York University, said.
In response, Till said she agrees measuring fluoride in maternal urine is a proxy of the fetus' exposure, and that future work will examine this further. In Ontario, 73.2 per cent of drinking water is through fluoridated systems. Meanwhile, in provinces including British Columbia, Quebec, and New Brunswick, less than two per cent of drinking water is fluoridated.
Dr. James Dickinson, a professor of family medicine and of community health sciences at the University of Calgary, says municipal officials who determine if fluoride will be in a community's water supply are not trained to review science and can be persuaded by loud voices in the anti-fluoride movement.
Guichon said in an interview that Calgary's investment will pay off in the future for the city. “Over a 20-year life of the project divided by 1.4 million people makes the cost a dollar per person per year.”In a report published in the Cochrane Library in October, researchers in the United Kingdom reviewed 157 international studies on fluoridation and found the benefit of fluoride has declined since toothpaste became more widely available in the 1970s.
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