Unfluoridate It! — November, 2011
Drinking water is fluoridated in Canada, the United States and Australia, but almost nowhere else in the world. Western Europe and Japan have almost no fluoridated water supplies. About 43 percent of Canadians live in communities with fluoridated tap water.
The Council of Canadians is opposed to the fluoridation of drinking water. We are concerned by the health and environmental impacts associated with it.
We are working with the Quebec-based group Eau Secours which is opposing the Charest government’s plans to increase the fluoridation of water there from about 3 per cent to 50 per cent. We also encourage Council of Canadians chapters across the country to promote local debate and move municipal resolutions in their community on this issue. http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/fluoride/index.html
Unfluoridate It! Stopping the fluoridation of drinking water
Fluoride does not improve drinking water. Fluoride is added to drinking water for the sole purpose of improving dental health. But why fluoridate 100 per cent of a municipality’s water when only one per cent of that water is used (through beverages and food preparation) for human consumption? Fluoride’s effect is topical, meaning fluoride only works when it comes in contact with teeth – swallowing it offers no benefits. It has also been demonstrated that fluoridation does not contribute to preventing dental cavities in children before they turn six.
Fluoride can produce a myriad of harmful and very serious health effects – from dental fluorosis to bone cancer. Dental fluorosis is a sign of fluoride poisoning caused by the excessive ingestion of fluoride before the appearance of permanent teeth. Fluoride toxicity disturbs the tooth enamel formation process, producing enamel discoloration and permanent marbling. Fluoride can also have negative effects on the kidneys and brain and can cause skeletal fluorosis.
Fluoride can also have negative impacts on the environment. After it is added to drinking water, wastewater treatment plants do not remove it. It is bioaccumulative, and we do not know how it affects plants and wildlife.
Water fluoridation raises legal and ethical issues because it is a way of knowingly prescribing and administrating a medication to an entire population (mass medication) without its consent, without public consultation, without knowing the individual health condition of the subjects (age, gender, history, etc.), their daily dose of fluoride (from various sources) and their food and hygiene habits. This does not comply with the rules of professional practice and goes against the ethical codes of all health professions.
The Direction de la santé publique (DSP) [public health branch] of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) [Quebec Health and Social Services Ministry] is considering increasing access to fluoridated drinking water by 50 per cent by 2012. The MSSS has committed to paying a subsidy to municipalities to cover the costs of purchasing, designing, installing, repairing and replacing fluoridation equipment, as well as the cost of the fluoride used.
http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/fluoride/unfluoridate.html
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