Is our water hurting us?

A small but growing number of environmentalists and medical professionals are raising concerns over flouridation, the process of adding flouride to public water supplies with the intent of making teeth more resistant to tooth decay.

In Waterdown, a suburb on Hamilton, one activist has even requested that her city council stop flouridation in the area. “Here we are, mass-medicating with a drug,” says Cindy Mayor, worrying that flouridation might be in part responsible for the increasing number of people needing treatment for thyroid disorders.

Recent studies suggest that the process may be linked to a number of serious medical conditions, including impaired thyroid function, reduced IQ levels in children, and osteosarcoma, the bone cancer that killed Terry Fox.

Although these claims has been disputed, critics say the research points to the necessity of a review of the practice, particularly because scientists now believe that the benefits of flouride are not absorbed through ingestion, but rather from topical contact with teeth. This may explain the widespread decline in cavity rates in industrialized countries all over the world, irrespective of whether they add flouride to their water. Flouridation is primarily done in Canada, the U.S. and Australia; Western Europe and Japan have almost no flouridated water supplies, yet still the reduction is still noted.

About 13.5 million Canadians (43%) live in communities with flouridated tap water, including Torontonians.

Recent research found that adolescent boys who were exposed to flouridated water were nearly four times more likely to develop cancer than those exposed to lower levels. Four studies in China uncovered a strong association between highly flouridated water and sharply reducted IQs in children. Flouride has also been found to disrupt normal thyroid functions.

Health Canada and the Canadian Dental Association are sticking to their guns - or gums, in this case - on the issue. “The flouridation of drinking water supplies is a well-accepted measure to protect public health that is strongly supported by scientific evidence,” Health Canada said in a statement. Even so, the department admits it is currently studying the recent findings and may adjust the amount it recommends for tap water.

Health authorities have been less confident, however, at choosing appropriate levels of flouridation. Many jurisdictions have recently cut the amount they add - cuts substantial enough to suggest that levels in the past three decades were too high. Toronto’s drinking water, after several reductions, now contains half the flouride it did before 1999.

The head of protective dentistry at the University of Toronto and a former advocate of flouridation is alarmed. “We don’t know what the health implications are of a lifetime exposure to flouride in drinking water,” says Dr. Hardy Limeback. If flouridation is ended, he adds, it may lead to a modest increase in tooth decay at a rate of about one extra filling in every fifth child - not bad odds, compared to the possible alternatives.

Toronto actually flouridates below the level recommended by Health Canada of 0.8 to 1 part per million flouride to water. Toronto is at .6 ppm.

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