The Cape Breton Regional Municipality appears to be speaking from both sides of its mouth on the issue of artificial water fluoridation. While they continue to add fluoride to the drinking water supplies of Sydney, North Sydney, New Waterford and Glace Bay until organizations such as Health Canada and the Canadian Dental Association go on record as opposing this practice, they actually ignored that same advice when it came to Louisbourg.

When the CBRM was asked why the decision was made not to fluoridate Louisbourg’s water supply, the reasons given were that fluoride is not an essential component, adding it is not a formal requirement, there are now other forms of fluoride available to people (so don’t add it to the water supply if you don’t have to), and don’t add all those costs if there’s not a compelling reason to do it. Given all those reasons, why does the CBRM continue to add fluoride to the drinking water of any other community?

We’ve been told for more than 50 years that adding fluoride to our drinking water reduces dental decay, but studies have shown there is no statistical difference in the rate of dental decay between fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities in industrialized countries.

Fluoride is not the safe, benign substance that many of us believed it to be. It’s an extremely corrosive, toxic chemical that, when swallowed, accumulates in our bones and soft tissues and causes harm. Exposure to fluoride can have adverse effects on the brain and can lower IQ in children. It’s an enzyme poison and a mutagen that can cause genetic damage and cancer. A myriad of other health effects are associated with ingesting fluoride.

To make matters worse, the fluoride added to our drinking water is not even a pharmaceutical grade drug but is an industrial byproduct called fluorosilicic acid and it comes from the smokestack scrubbers of the Florida phosphate fertilizer industry.

The first visible sign of fluoride toxicity is when a child develops a tooth disease called dental fluorosis, which is damage to their tooth-forming cells from swallowing fluoride. It is characterized by white spots and/or smears on the teeth, and can also cause pitting, cracking, discolouration and brittleness.

The CBRM is right that there are other forms of fluoride available to people. In fact, we are being bombarded with fluoride on a daily basis from so many sources, aside from fluoridated tap water, that even children living in non-fluoridated communities have dental fluorosis. These sources include all foods and beverages processed in fluoridated communities such as pop, juice, soup, beer, wine, etc., as well as from dental treatments, varnishes and rinses, toothpaste (which children tend to swallow), weekly fluoride rinse programs at elementary schools, many medications, anaesthetics, tea, fluoride pesticide residues on food, etc.

Knowing the many uncontrolled sources of fluoride we are now swallowing on a daily basis, the Canadian Dental Association recommends that the total daily intake of fluoride from all sources be carefully monitored and should not exceed 0.05 to 0.07 milligrams of fluoride per kilogram of body weight. How ridiculous is that? Who exactly do they think is carefully monitoring and keeping track of how much fluoride we swallow? According to the American Dental Association, young children may consume the daily recommended amount of fluoride from swallowing toothpaste alone. What happens then?

U.S. health officials recently sounded the alarm and acknowledged that Americans are getting too much fluoride. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists have been sounding that alarm for over a decade and calling for an end to artificial water fluoridation. Health Canada has lowered the recommended amount of fluoride in drinking water a number of times over the years.

Even the Canadian Paediatric Society says that ingesting fluoride “has little effect on caries (cavities), but contributes significantly to the development of fluorosis.”

Why then are we still being forced to swallow this poison?

The CBRM must do for all communities what it does for Louisbourg; protect its residents and keep fluoride out of the drinking water.

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