Lake Cowichan’s drinking water may not be as healthy as the public thinks, Burnaby-based Health Action Network Society president Jane Shaak argues.

The fluoridation of the water, she said, must end.

“I’m sure a lot of people in Lake Cowichan don’t know they’re the only community on the island that has (fluoridated water),” she said.

Not only is Lake Cowichan the only place on Vancouver Island still adding fluoride to its drinking water, its citizens make up some of the only 3.7 per cent of British Columbians with access to fluoridated water.

The Health Action Network Society has a goal of reducing that number to zero.

The World Health Organization document Fluoride in Drinking-water states: “Fluoride has beneficial effects on teeth at low concentrations in drinking-water, but excessive exposure to fluoride in drinking-water, or in combination with exposure to other sources, can give rise to a number of adverse effects.”

Lake Cowichan superintendent of public works Nagi Rizk confirmed through an e-mail interview that the town samples its water daily and once a month a compounded sample is tested in a certified laboratory for optimal fluoride content.

“For whatever reason (fluoridation) was done in the past, but this has to change,” Shaak said. By adding fluoride to the water supply the town is forcing a medication upon the public. “Why are municipalities medicating people? They’re making these arbitrary decisions based on information of the past.”

The fluoridation of the local water supply last came up in council meetings in 2002, when the council of the time approved of putting the fluoridation issue to a public vote.

Before this happened, submissions made by the Central Vancouver Island Health Region endorsing fluoridation came forward, and approval for the vote was withdrawn.

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