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Although Ontario’s health minister is very much in favour of fluoride, he’s not making cities put the tooth-saving chemical in their water — despite new research showing the harm done by removing it.
Putting fluoride in municipal water is one of the great achievements of public health. Minute amounts of fluoride strengthen tooth enamel. Stronger enamel means fewer cavities, lost teeth, potentially life-threatening abscesses. In fluoridating and non-fluoridating cities alike, children’s dental surgery is a major cause of hospital admissions, but fluoride helps reduce them.
Taking fluoride out of municipal water is one of the great achievements of tinfoil-hattery, allied with enviroweeniness and misguided libertarianism. Yes, fluoride can be dangerous in large quantities; so can the chlorine that kills deadly bacteria. And water itself, for that matter. But one by one, cities across Canada have been choosing to stop fluoridating their water, on the grounds that if people want fluoride, they can buy it themselves.
Calgary’s the biggest of these. Its city council stopped fluoridating in 2011 and since then public-health researchers have been tracking the consequences. A group led by the University of Calgary’s Lindsay McLaren released a study this week comparing the number of cavities in the teeth of children in Calgary and Edmonton, before and after Calgary’s decision.
The result: Calgary kids’ teeth got markedly worse, both compared with Edmonton kids’ teeth and Calgary kids’ teeth from a few years ago. More cavities, more fillings, more teeth pulled.
Because they studied the records of children in Grade 2, McLaren and her fellow researchers mainly looked at baby teeth, which are weaker than adult teeth and would show damage sooner. “Trends for permanent teeth hinted at early indication of an adverse effect,” their report says, and it’ll need a followup in a few years.
Health authorities across the country have begged cities to keep fluoridating. The problem: health officials don’t control the water supply. The MDs and PhDs can say whatever they want, but it’s politicians who command the public-works departments. Ottawa has shown no sign of de-fluoridating yet, but Windsor took fluoride out of its water in 2013 and smaller towns have been winking off the fluoride map for years. Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians live in places that used to fluoridate but have stopped. It’s a local decision and local decision-makers are making it.
The province sets maximum limits on fluoride in city water supplies, as it does for everything from nitrogen to cyanide to plutonium, but no minimum. Boards of health, including ours, have written to the provincial government to ask it to require municipalities to fluoridate their water.
The response from Health Minister Eric Hoskins: A letter last month sent to mayors across Ontario. Hoskins, who’s a doctor, trumpeted the benefits of fluoride, the clear science that says it’s a good thing to have in municipal water and his own earnest desire that local politicians make the right choice.
“Removing fluoride from drinking water will place those least able to afford or access dental treatment at a much higher risk for oral health problems,” said the letter, co-signed by Ontario’s chief public-health officer Dr. David Williams. “The health benefits of drinking water fluoridation extend to all residents in a community, regardless of age, socioeconomic status, education or employment. Municipal leaders should consider carefully the range of factors and implications of removing fluoridation from municipal drinking water systems. We urge all of you to support fluoridation of drinking water in your communities so that everyone can enjoy the long-term health benefits.”
But make them do it? Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hoskins echoes his predecessor at the health ministry, Deb Matthews. She also did everything she could for fluoride except the one thing that nobody but the health minister could. Why? They’ve never really said. I asked again Wednesday. No reply by mid-afternoon.
Again, fluoride is one of the great public-health triumphs of the 20th century. The American Centers for Disease Control figures that $1 spent on fluoride (Ottawa spends about $375,000 a year) saves $38 in dentistry, not to mention pain and suffering.
Of course, that savings is mostly to individual citizens and insurance companies, not the government. If we found some chemical that had a similar effect on arterial plaque or blood sugar, which cost the health ministry a lot of money, one suspects they’d find reasons to act differently.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
Putting fluoride in municipal water is one of the great achievements of public health. Minute amounts of fluoride strengthen tooth enamel. Stronger enamel means fewer cavities, lost teeth, potentially life-threatening abscesses. In fluoridating and non-fluoridating cities alike, children’s dental surgery is a major cause of hospital admissions, but fluoride helps reduce them.
Taking fluoride out of municipal water is one of the great achievements of tinfoil-hattery, allied with enviroweeniness and misguided libertarianism. Yes, fluoride can be dangerous in large quantities; so can the chlorine that kills deadly bacteria. And water itself, for that matter. But one by one, cities across Canada have been choosing to stop fluoridating their water, on the grounds that if people want fluoride, they can buy it themselves.
Calgary’s the biggest of these. Its city council stopped fluoridating in 2011 and since then public-health researchers have been tracking the consequences. A group led by the University of Calgary’s Lindsay McLaren released a study this week comparing the number of cavities in the teeth of children in Calgary and Edmonton, before and after Calgary’s decision.
The result: Calgary kids’ teeth got markedly worse, both compared with Edmonton kids’ teeth and Calgary kids’ teeth from a few years ago. More cavities, more fillings, more teeth pulled.
Because they studied the records of children in Grade 2, McLaren and her fellow researchers mainly looked at baby teeth, which are weaker than adult teeth and would show damage sooner. “Trends for permanent teeth hinted at early indication of an adverse effect,” their report says, and it’ll need a followup in a few years.
Health authorities across the country have begged cities to keep fluoridating. The problem: health officials don’t control the water supply. The MDs and PhDs can say whatever they want, but it’s politicians who command the public-works departments. Ottawa has shown no sign of de-fluoridating yet, but Windsor took fluoride out of its water in 2013 and smaller towns have been winking off the fluoride map for years. Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians live in places that used to fluoridate but have stopped. It’s a local decision and local decision-makers are making it.
The province sets maximum limits on fluoride in city water supplies, as it does for everything from nitrogen to cyanide to plutonium, but no minimum. Boards of health, including ours, have written to the provincial government to ask it to require municipalities to fluoridate their water.
The response from Health Minister Eric Hoskins: A letter last month sent to mayors across Ontario. Hoskins, who’s a doctor, trumpeted the benefits of fluoride, the clear science that says it’s a good thing to have in municipal water and his own earnest desire that local politicians make the right choice.
“Removing fluoride from drinking water will place those least able to afford or access dental treatment at a much higher risk for oral health problems,” said the letter, co-signed by Ontario’s chief public-health officer Dr. David Williams. “The health benefits of drinking water fluoridation extend to all residents in a community, regardless of age, socioeconomic status, education or employment. Municipal leaders should consider carefully the range of factors and implications of removing fluoridation from municipal drinking water systems. We urge all of you to support fluoridation of drinking water in your communities so that everyone can enjoy the long-term health benefits.”
But make them do it? Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hoskins echoes his predecessor at the health ministry, Deb Matthews. She also did everything she could for fluoride except the one thing that nobody but the health minister could. Why? They’ve never really said. I asked again Wednesday. No reply by mid-afternoon.
Again, fluoride is one of the great public-health triumphs of the 20th century. The American Centers for Disease Control figures that $1 spent on fluoride (Ottawa spends about $375,000 a year) saves $38 in dentistry, not to mention pain and suffering.
Of course, that savings is mostly to individual citizens and insurance companies, not the government. If we found some chemical that had a similar effect on arterial plaque or blood sugar, which cost the health ministry a lot of money, one suspects they’d find reasons to act differently.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
