Watertown water superintendent Mike Sligar is speaking out after an anti-fluoride author and chemist argued that fluoride in public water may be harmful to the public’s health.

Dr. Paul Connett addressed city lawmakers last week, arguing that adding fluoride to drinking water may lower IQ scores, cause dental problems, and even cause cancer in some cases.

Sligar says he believes Watertown’s fluoride program is successful and says he’ll be making his case over the coming weeks.

“I certainly disagree with the thought that the use of a public water supply can convey or to cause the exposure of people to fluoride ions is necessarily a wrong thing to do as a thing to do,” he said.

“It can be done and it can be done correctly.”

Connett wrote a book detailing why he believes adding fluoride to water is dangerous.

Sligar says he read Connett’s book and drew very different conclusions.