The chair of the Windsor Utilities Commission supports removing fluoride from the city’s drinking water.

Sometime this summer, Windsor city council will deal with the issue.

A recommendation coming out of a special Windsor Utilities Commission meeting held last February is to stop the practice of adding fluoride.

Coun. Bill Marra chairs the commission’s board of directors and supports the motion. He said he’s hearing from the public on the issue.

“Obviously a lot has changed in 60 years and what’s changed significantly is the opinion of the average person,” Marra said. “We’re hearing — whether you can call them a vocal minority — there is a very concerted, organized effort out there suggesting to the decision makers that fluoridation should be revisited and that’s what we’re doing.”

Marra said there are alternatives to fluoride in the drinking water. He also said the issue isn’t cut and dried.

“There are just a lot of question marks around data and research that’s been done; the lack of updated research and some questions around the bodies that have taken position on this without real empirical data to support their argument,” he said.

Fluoride Free Windsor, a group of 200 people calling for fluoride to be removed from Windsor’s water, praised Marra’s stance.

“He seems to really understand the question wasn’t about teeth, it was about the other things ingesting fluoride does,” Kimberly DeYong said. “This isn’t about teeth. It’s about so much more.”

DeYong said she and the group is “very optimistic” council will eventually decide to remove fluoride from Windsor’s water, mainly because most neighbouring communities have already done so. Only Windsor, LaSalle and Tecumseh still fluoridate their water supply.

The cost of adding fluoride to Windsor’s drinking water is between $125,000 and $150,000 each year.

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