The City of Calgary’s upcoming plebiscite on whether or not residents support re-introducing fluoride into the municipality’s drinking water will also have implications in Airdrie. In conjunction with the upcoming municipal election on Oct. 18, voters in Calgary will also answer a plebiscite on whether or not they support the addition of fluoride into their city’s water supply. As Airdrie gets its drinking water from Calgary, the result of the plebiscite will also determine if Airdrie’s water in the future will contain fluoride, according to the City of Airdrie’s manager of community infrastructure, Lorne Stevens. “I know the topic of fluoridation can be quite contentious,” he said. “At the end of the day, we don’t have a team of fluoride researchers or public health experts employed by the City of Airdrie. We rely on the guidance of Health Canada and Alberta Health Services, and both of those entities do recommend fluoridation as a public health measure, focusing on dental health – there’s a whole back story of why that is.”
Calgary children’s dental health getting worse without community water fluoridation
Calgary children have been without fluoride in their drinking water since 2011 and their dental health is suffering, according to findings from a University of Calgary study. It compares the dental health of children in Calgary to children in Edmonton, where the municipal water supply is fluoridated. Of the approximately 2,600 Grade 2 students in each city who took part in the study, 55.1 per cent of Edmonton participants had one or more cavities in their baby teeth. In comparison, the number was 64.8 per cent of Calgary children.