Letter to the Editor
Re: ‘Water fluoridation should be banned,’ Cape Breton Post column, May 27.
Please run a news story on how public health is relentlessly attacked by false and misleading statements with respect to vaccination and fluoridation.
Please inquire what motivates people to assume that they know more than physicians who have completed a five-year post medical school training to understand, to interpret and to situate in context health science articles related to public health?
Perhaps you could interview the Chief Medical Officer of Canada and the Chief Dental Officer of Canada. They both endorse community water fluoridation because it is safe and effective in reducing dental decay, which is the most common chronic disease of childhood.
The Cape Breton Post states that the author of the anti-fluoridation piece, Marlene Kane, “is a longtime Sydney resident and a teacher’s aide at a local elementary school.” Why does the paper assume that the teacher’s aide is sufficiently qualified to scare people needlessly about a public health measure? If the teacher’s aide had claimed that the Seal Island Bridge is in danger of collapse, then would the Post have run that article without first checking with duly-qualified civil engineers?
Expertise exists.
In the future, before giving voice to fear mongers, please ask your public health officers to review their claims. Crying “Fire!” in a crowded theatre when there is no fire is not a reasonable exercise of free speech.
Juliet Guichon
Assistant Professor
Community Health Sciences
Cumming School Medicine, University of Calgary
*Original letter online at https://www.capebretonpost.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor/letter-to-the-editor-call-for-water-fluoridation-ban-is-fear-mongering-318578/
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