Canada - launch a pro-fluoride PR campaign

Henry Aubin: The issue of fluoridated water has resurfaced

 

 

BY HENRY AUBIN, THE GAZETTE JULY 17, 2013

 

Henry Aubin

MONTREAL — After years of obscurity, the idea of fluoridating the water supply is back.

Provincial public-health officials are pressing the Parti Québécois to retreat from its 2012 election pledge to end all fluoridation of water. The PQ government’s health minister, Réjean Hébert, favours a U-turn in principle, but he says he won’t urge municipalities to fluoridate their water unless popular opinion backs him. Public-health officials will therefore soon launch a pro-fluoride PR campaign.

Is fluoridating drinking water to reduce cavities in teeth a good idea?

It’s hard for ordinary lay people, such as myself, to know where the truth lies in this extremely controversial question. But I am sure of this: The question is complex, and the habit of many fluoride proponents to portray their critics as nitwits is uncalled for. (An op-ed piece in Wednesday’s Gazette by a Montreal cardiologist, Christopher Labos, offers an example: He lumped fluoridation critics in with the bodily-fluids nutcase in the movie Dr. Strangelove.)...........

They never give up