Why would Montreal’s elected officials even think about taking it away? There is no good financial reason — nor is there a health reason.
We find that the arguments offered by city councillor Maja Vodanovic for ceasing fluoridation are poor.
For one, she cites the safety of water-treatment operators. It seems to us that if water-treatment personnel cannot safely handle fluoride, then they cannot safely handle chlorine and should be redeployed.
Vodanovic further claims she “does not want to use water as a vehicle for pharmaceuticals.” Fluoride is not a pharmaceutical. It is a mineral.
In some municipalities, fluoride occurs naturally at a sufficient level to help protect teeth. If not, fluoridation tops the concentration to a minuscule amount of less than one part per million of water.
Moreover, fluoridation is much less expensive than dental treatment. Why would Montreal’s elected officials even think about taking it away? There is no good financial reason.
Seeing through the poor–quality studies, public health officials in North America, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, among other countries, have not changed their recommendations that fluoridation is effective and safe.
Fluoridation has other benefits. It is helping the West Island reduce unnecessary dental waste by reducing the need for dental treatment. On average, dental procedures generate 21 items of single–use plastic items.
Fluoridation eliminates much of the disparities in access to oral care by benefiting everyone, especially children whose parents don’t know or cannot afford to take other preventive steps (toothbrushing, a diet low in simple sugars, and visits to dental health-care providers) and people with physical illnesses or substance-use disorders who find preventive steps difficult.
Prevention is always better than treatment. The agglomeration council ought to make good decisions for all residents. For almost 80 years, the evidence has demonstrated that water fluoridation is a good decision for all North American municipal councillors to take.
Paul Allison and Belinda Nicolau are professors in the faculty of dental medicine and oral health sciences at McGill University. Eduardo Franco is a distinguished James McGill professor in the departments of oncology and epidemiology and biostatistics. Juliet Guichon is a professor at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.